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HISTORY 



AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS 



ASIA, AFRICA, EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA. 



WILLIAM GAMMELL, A.M. 

PROFESSOlt IN BROWN UNIVERSITY. 



WITH MAPS AND AN APPENDIX. 



BOSTON: ^ 

GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, 

68 WASHINGTON STBEET. 

1849. 






c* 



J 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1849, by 

GOULD, KENDALL and LINCOLN, 
in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



BOSTON: 

STEREOTYPED BT C. C. P. MOODY OLD DICKINSON OFFICE, 

NO. 52 WASHINGTON STREET. 



3 



6 



CERTIFICATE. 



The undersigned, having been requested by the Ex- 
ecutive Committee of the Missionary Union to read, in 
manuscript, Professor Gammell's History of American 
Baptist Missions, are happy in being able to state that, 
in our opinion, the work is well adapted to accomplish the 
important purposes for which it was written. 

Such a history we think to be much needed, and 
worthy of being read by all. It exhibits gratifying evi- 
dence of research, fidelity and skill. It sets before the 
reader, in a lucid manner, facts that should never be 
forgotten. Some of them, in power to awaken attention 
and touch the heart, could scarcely be surpassed by 
fiction. Others are full of instruction, presenting the 
rich fruits of varied experience ; or coming, in impressive 
tones of Christian love and admonition, from the graves 
of those who, in making known the way of salvation, 
have cheerfully laid down their lives in distant lands. And 



IV CERTIFICATE. 

others still, abound in encouragement, giving us to see 
unequivocal tokens of success, — the foundations of idola- 
try and superstition shaken ; the Holy Scriptures trans- 
lated; the press sending forth messages of divine truth; 
children gathered into schools, and brought under evan- 
gelical influence ; the gospel proclaimed by missionaries 
and native preachers; converts multiplied; the ordinances 
of Christ administered ; churches constituted, exemplifying 
in the lives of their members the power and loveliness of 
primitive Christianity, and sending up to heaven, from 
overflowing hearts, the voice of prayer and hymns of 
praise; — all urging us onward in the missionary enter- 
prise, and all fitted to excite our gratitude to God, in 
view of the signal blessing which He has already bestowed 
on our feeble endeavors. 

Spencer H. Cone, 
Daniel Sharp, 
Irah Chase. 

BOSTON, May 1, 1849. 



PKEFACE. 



The following work was undertaken at the request of the 
Executive Committee of the American Baptist Missionary 
Union, and is designed to narrate the origin and progress of the 
several missions which have been commenced and sustained by 
the agency of that association. It is intended to be a history of 
the missions rather than of the society by which they are con- 
ducted, — of the colonies which have been planted on distant 
shores, rather than of the government by whose agency they 
were commenced, and by whose patronage they are sustained. 
On this account it records only such domestic changes and events 
in our missionary organization as have shaped the character or 
affected the progress of the enterprise for which that organization 
was called into being. 

The subject relates to many different countries and races of 
mankind, and comprises the personal adventures and philan- 
thropic labors of a large number of individuals, who, in the spirit 
of their Master and in obedience to His great command, have 
toiled for the extension of Christian truth among their fellow- 
men. From a range of topics so wide and varied, the author 
has aimed to select the incidents and scenes which may fairly 
represent the growth of each separate mission, and to form from 
them a series of narratives fitted to interest the general reader. 
In the execution of the design, the most difficult task has been 
to blend particular facts with general views, and from the scat- 
tered labors of many individuals to trace the gradual advance- 
ment of the enterprise in which they are engaged. In doing 
this he has of necessity omitted many details of themselves in- 
teresting and important, but less immediately connected with the 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

general object of the narrative, and has often grouped together 
in a single paragraph toils and adventures, each of which might 
furnish material for an entire chapter. 

The principal sources from which the materials for the work 
have been derived are the journals of the missionaries, and the 
published reports and documents of the Executive Managers, 
which are contained in the volumes of the Missionary Maga- 
zine. In addition to these, the author has had free access to 
the records and papers in the Missionary Rooms at Boston ; he 
has read the memoirs of departed missionaries, and consulted 
many works relating to the benefits resulting from the missions 
and to the history and condition of the countries in which they 
are planted. He has also woven into the narrative brief notices 
of such public events as have affected their progress and success. 
Great pains have been taken to render the statements and views 
as accurate as possible, and to furnish for those who may be in- 
terested in its perusal a clear and impartial account of the origin 
and progress of a single branch of the noble enterprise in which 
the churches of our own and of nearly every other Christian 
communion are now earnestly engaged. 

In his endeavors to secure accuracy of dates and facts, the 
author acknowledges the valuable aid he has received from the 
Corresponding Secretaries of the Board, and from the gentle- 
men appointed to examine the manuscript ; from all of whom 
he has experienced the kindest courtesy and attention in con- 
ducting every part of the work. The maps, though small, will 
be found valuable aids to the text, and the statistical tables con- 
tained in the Appendix serve to render the volume a fuller ex- 
ponent of the present condition of the Missionary Union. It 
is now submitted to the public in the humble hope that it may 
be deemed worthy of a place in the already extensive literature 
of Christian missions, and that it may be made instrumental in 
promoting a cause which is identified with all the highest inter- 
ests of the human race. 



CONTENTS. 



MISSIONS IN BURMAH, 



CHAPTER I. 

Origin of the Missionary Spirit in America. — The Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society. — The American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions. — The earliest American Missionaries. — Change of Sen- 
timents of Messrs. Judson and Rice 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Messrs. Judson and Rice at Serampore. — The Difficulties they Encoun- 
ter. — Mr. and Mrs. Judson settle at Rangoon. — Mr. Rice returns to 
America. — Interest awakened in the Churches here. — Formation of 
a Society for Propagating the Gospel in India. — A Meeting of Dele- 
gates proposed 8 



CHAPTER III. 

Meeting at Philadelphia. — Formation of the Triennial Convention. — 
Appointment of Messrs. Judson and Rice as Missionaries. — The La- 
bors of Mr. Rice. — Financial Basis of the Mission 17 



CHAPTER IV. 

Labors of Mr. Judson at Rangoon. — Study of the Language. — Burmah : 
its People : Government : Religion. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. Hough with 
a Printing Press. — Translation of the Scriptures commenced. — Books 
printed. — First Burman Inquirer 24 



CHAPTER V. 

Convention meets at Philadelphia. — Appointment of Messrs. Colman 
and Wheelock. — Mr. Judson sails for Chittagong. — Troubles of the 
Mission during his Absence. — His Return. — "Mr. Hough embarks for 
Calcutta. — Arrival of Messrs. Colman and Wheelock at Rangoon. — 
Death of Mr. Wheelock. — Opening of the Zayat. — Baptism of the 
first Convert. — Jealousy of the Government. — Messrs. Judson and 
Colman go to Ava to obtain Toleration from the King 35 



V1U CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Their Introduction at the Burman Court. — Their Petition refused. — 
They return to Rangoon. — Mr. and Mrs. Colman go to Chittagong. — 
Death of Mr. Colman. — Converts at Rangoon. — Mr. and Mrs. Judson 
visit Calcutta. — Progress of the Mission at Rangoon 45 

CHAPTER VII. 

Mrs. Judson's Visit to the United States in 1822. — Her History of the 
Mission. — Arrival of Dr. Price at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson and Price 
go to Ava. — Interview with the King. — A Branch of the Mission es- 
tablished at Ava. — Arrival of Mrs. Judson and Mr. and Mrs. Wade at 
Rangoon. — Messrs. Hough and Wade at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson 
and Price at Ava. — Removal of the Government to Amarapura. . . 56 

CHAPTER VIII. 

War between the Burmans and the English. — Capture of Rangoon. — 
Perils of Messrs. Hough and Wade, and their Families. — Advance of 
the English towards Ava. — Imprisonment of the Missionaries there. — 
Their removal to Oung-pen-la. — Their protracted Sufferings. — Heroic 
Services of Mrs. Judson. — Liberation of the Missionaries. — Their 
Agency in Negotiations with the English. — Reception of Mr. and Mrs. 
Judson by Sir Archibald Campbell. — Their return to Rangoon. — The 
Mission removed to Amherst. — Mr. Judson joins the English Embassy 
to Ava. — Death of Mrs. Judson 66 

CHAPTER IX. 

Seat of the Board established at Boston. — Rev. Dr. Staughton. — Amer- 
ican Sympathy for the Missionaries. — Condition of the Mission. — 
Death of Dr. Price. — Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Boardman. — Their set- 
tlement at Maulmain. — Removal of the Mission to Maulmain. — Labors 
of the Missionaries. — Mr. and Mrs. Boajdman remove to Tavoy. — 
Condition of the city. — They become acquainted with the Karens. — 
Character of the Karen Race 79 

CHAPTER X. 

Labors of Ko Thah-byu. — Superstitions of the Karens. — Their interest 
in Christianity. — Mr. Boardman visits their Villages. — His Agency in 
establishing Schools. — Insurrection in Tavoy. — Interruption of the 
Mission. — Increasing interest of the Karens. — Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. 
Mason at Tavoy. — 111 health of Mr. Boardman. — His last Visit to the 
Karens. — His Death 91 

CHAPTER XI. 

The Mission at Maulmain. — Labors of Messrs. Judson and Wade. — Or- 
dination of Ko Thah-a. — He is stationed at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson 
and Wade visit Rangoon. — Circulation of the New Testament and 
Tracts. — Mr. Judson ascends the frrawaddy to Prome. — His Labors at 
Rangoon in Translating the Bible. — Return to Maulmain. — Arrival of 
other Missionaries. — Mr. and Mrs. Wade visit Arracan. — Review of 
the Progress of the Mission 104 



CONTENTS. IX 



CHAPTER XII. 

Progress of the Mission from 1832 to 1835. — Mr. Judson devoted to 
Translating the Bible. — Resolutions of the Board at Salem. — Estab- 
lishment of Out-Stations. — Christian Villages. — Excursions of Mr. 
Mason from Tavoy. — Great changes among the Karens. — Their Lan- 
guage reduced to Writing by Mr. Wade. — Mr. and Mrs. Wade obliged 
to sail for the United States. — Arrival of new Companies of Missiona- 
ries. — Mr. Kincaid at Rangoon and at Ava. — Mr. Judson completes 
the Translation of the Bible. — Mr. and Mrs. Wade in the United 
States. — Results of their Visit. — Their Return with additional Mis- 
sionaries. — Death of Miss Cummings 114 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Meeting of the Convention at Richmond in 1835. — Rev. H. Malcom 
visits the Missions. — Comparative Results among the Burmans and 
among the Karens. — Modes of Life and of Labor adopted by the Mis- 
sionaries. — Multiplication of Schools. — Theological School at Tavoy 
and at Maulmain. — Growth of the Karen Mission in British Burmah. 
— Agency of the Press. — Station at Dong-yahn. — State of the Mission 
in Burmah Proper. — Persecution at Rangoon. — Arrival of Messrs. 
Vinton, Abbott, and Howard at Rangoon. — Mr. Kincaid at Ava. — His 

* attempt to visit the Shy an States. — Civil War in Burmah. — Missiona- 
ries leave the Country. — Return of Messrs. Abbott and Kincaid. — 
Joined by Mr. Simons. — Labors among the Karens. — Final Departure 
of Missionaries from Rangoon in 1840 133 



CHAPTER XIV. 

The Province of Arracan. — Mr. and Mrs. Comstock settle at Kyouk 
Phyoo. — Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Hall. — Their early Death. — Messrs. 
Abbott and Kincaid join the Mission. — Mr. Abbott at Sandoway. — 
Labors among the Karens. — Their rapid Conversion to Christianity. — 
Burman Persecution of the Christian Karens. — Their Fidelity and its 
Results. — Sympathy of British Residents. — Death of Mrs. Abbott, 
and Visit of Mr. Abbott to 'the United States. — Mr. Kincaid at Akyab. 
— The Mountain Chief. — Sad Changes in the Mission. — Death of "Mr. 
and Mrs. Comstock. — Progress of the Mission in British Burmah from 
1840 to 1845 ; also in Burmah Proper. — Changes in the Board. — Death 
of Rev. Dr. Bolles 150 



CHAPTER XV. 

Financial Embarrassment of the Board. — Its Causes. — Question of 
Slavery. — Correspondence of the Board with the Alabama State Con- 
vention. — Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. — American 
Baptist Missionary Union. — Visit of Rev. Dr. Judson to the United 
States. — His return to Burmah with other Missionaries. — Changes in 
the Missions during his Absence. — Executive Officers of the Board. — 
Return of Mr. Abbott to Sandoway. — Karen Converts waiting for 
Baptism. — Appointment of new Missionaries. — Latest Reports from 
the Missions in Burmah • 173 



CONTENTS. 



MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Arrival of Rev. J. T. Jones at Bangkok. — Character of the Siamese. — 
Arrival of Mr. Dean. — His Labors among the Chinese at Bangkok. — 
A Chinese Church. — Arrival of other Missionaries. — Progress of 
Chinese Department. — Death of Mr. Reed and Mrs. Jones. — Printing 
the Scriptures in Siamese. — Arrival of Messrs. Slafter and Goddard. 

— Death of Mr. Slafter. — Progress of each Department of the Mission. 

— Temporary Station at Macao. — Chinese War. — Its Results. — Re- 
moval of Missionaries to Hongkong. — Death of Mrs. Dean. — Station 
at Ningpo. — Treaty between China and the United States. — Its Re- 
sults. — Death of Mrs. Shuck. — Prospects of the Station at Hongkong. 

— Condition of the Mission at Bangkok. — Translations of the Bible in 
China. — Labors of Messrs. Dean and Goddard. — Present Attitude of 
these Missions 187 



MISSION IN ASSAM. 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The Country of Assam and its Inhabitants. — Reasons for establishing a 
Mission there. — Messrs. Brown and Cutter go from Burmah to Assam. 

— They settle at Sadiya. — Arrival of Messrs. Bronson aud Thomas. — 
Death of Mr. Thomas. — Labors of the Missionaries. — Mr. Bronson 
removes to Jaipur. — Cooperation of British Residents. — Insurrection 
of the Khamtis. — Mr. Bronson settles among the Nagas. — Arrival of 
other Missionaries. — Station at Sibsagar. — Station at Nowgong. — 
Generous aid of British Officers. — Translation of the Gospels. — Mr. 
Barker at Gowahatti. — Growth of the Mission at the several Stations. 

— Schools. — Conversions to Christianity. — Need of Reinforcement. — 
Appointment of new Missionaries. — Present Prospects of the Mission. 209 



MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

Country of the Teloogoos. — Origin of the Mission. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. 
Day at Vizagapatam. — His settlement at Madras. — Visit to Bellary. 

— Difficulties Encountered by a solitary Missionary. — His Removal to 
Nellore. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. Van Husen. — Mr. Day visits Madras. 

— Caste among the Teloogoos. — Need of a Translation of the Scrip- 
tures. — Growth of the Mission. — Health of the Missionaries fails. — 
They leave Nellore and return to the United States. — State of the 
Mission in their Absence. — Return of Mr. Day and Appointment of 
Rev. Mr. Jewett in 1848 229 



CONTENTS. xi 



MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

CHAPTER XIX. 

General Character of the Mission. — Lott Carey and Collin Teage. — 
Rev. Calvin Holton. — Character and Death of Mr. Carey. — Rev. 
Benjamin Skinner. — Failure of the Mission in consequence of the 
Deatli of Missionaries. — Arrival of Messrs, Crocker and Mylne. — 
Station at Edina among the Bassas. — Madebli. — Character of the 
People. — Arrival of Rev. Ivory Clarke. — Departure of Mr. Mylne. — 
Progress of the Mission. — Messrs. Fielding and Constantine. — Fail- 
ure of their Undertaking. — Departure of Mr. Crocker. — Progress of 
the Mission in his Absence. — His Return and Death. — Station at 
Bcxley. — The Labors of Mr. Clarke: Translations: Churches: Schools: 
his Death. — Close of the Mission. — Attempted Mission in Hay ti. . . 243 



MISSION IN FRANCE. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Commencement of the Mission. — Agency of Messrs. Chase and Rostan. 

— Appointment of Mr. Willmarth. — Messrs. Willard and Sheldon join 
the Mission at Paris. — Messrs. Willmarth and Willard settle at Douay. 

— The Chapel at Genlis. — Mr. Willmarth leaves the Mission. — Mr. 
Sheldon goes to Douay: returns to America. — Religious Freedom in 
France in the Reign of Louis Phillippe. — Hostility to the Mission. — 
Civil Prosecutions. — The Revolution of February. — General Progress 
of the Mission. — Visit of Mr. Willard to the United States. — Dr. 
Devan joins the Mission. — Stationed at Paris — Religious Freedom 
under the New Constitution 265 



MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Object of the Mission. — Visit of Professor Sears to Germany. — Rev. 
J. G. Oncken appointed Missionary at Hamburg. — Extension of the 
Mission to other States. — Decree of the Senate" of Hamburg against 
the Mission. — Petitions of the Board and of others in the United States 
and in England. — Persecution in other States of Germany. — Growth 
of the Mission. — Change of Policy in Hamburg and in other States. 

— Persecution most severe in Denmark. — Imprisonment of the Danish 
Missionaries. — Visit of Mr. Oncken to England. — Persecution allayed. 

— Deputation of Messrs. Hackett and Conant to Denmark. — The 
"Law of Amnesty." — Troubles in the Danish Churches — Peculiar 
Features of the' Mission. — Its Connection with Religious Freedom. — 
The Recent Revolution. — Its Effects upon the Mission. ...... 278 



Xll CONTENTS. 



MISSION IN GREECE. 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Commenced in 1836. — Messrs. Pasco and Love at Patras. — Policy of 
the Greek Church respecting the Scriptures. — Appointment of Mrs. 
Dickson. — Return of Mr. Pasco. — Mr. Love removes to Corfu. — Bap- 
tism of Apostolos. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. Buel. — Tumult on St. Speri- 
dion's day. — Other Baptisms at Corfu. — Popular violence at Patras. 
— Mr. Love obliged to return to the United States. — Labors of Mr. 
Buel at Piraeus. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. Arnold at Corfu. — He preaches 
in English. — Slow progress of the Mission. — Evils with which it has 
to contend. — Labors of Mr. Arnold. — Prosecution of Mr. Buel at 
Piraeus. — General^ Aspect of the Mission 299 



MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

General View of these Missions. — Earliest Missionaries to the Indians. — 
Appointment of Rev. Isaac McCoy. — Station at Carey for the Puta- 
watomies : at Thomas for the Ottawas. — Changes in these Tribes. — 
Care of the Government of the United States for the Indian Race. — 
Mission among the Ojibwas: its Progress and Results. — Mission among 
the Indians of New York. — Commencement of the Mission among the 
Cherokees. — Appointment of Messrs. Posey and Jones. — Stations at 
Valley Towns and at Tinsawattee. — Civilization of the Cherokees : 
Emigration of a part of them beyond the Mississippi. — Mission among 
the Creeks : their Emigration. — Continuance and Close of the Creek 
Mission 313 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

i 

Plan of removing the Indians beyond the Mississippi. — Act of Congress 
in 1830. — Refusal of the Cherokees to remove. — Their removal by 
Force. — Influence of these Events upon the Mission. — Judicious Con- 
duct of the Missionaries. — Condition of the Mission in the Indian 
Territory. — Missions among other Tribes in the Territory ; their Prog- 
ress and Results. — Growth of the Mission among the Cherokees. — 
Their general Progress in Civilization. — Death of Rev. Jesse Bushy- 
head. — Present Condition of the Cherokee Nation. — Claims of the 
Indian Race. — Conclusion 330 



APPENDIX. 

Table of the Missions.— Missions and Missionaries. — Deceased Mission- 
aries. — Contributions. — Constitution 349 



AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS. 



MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Origin of the Missionary Spirit is America. — The Massachusetts Baptist 
Missionary Society. — The American Board of Commissioners for Foreion 
Missions. — The earliest American Missionaries. — Change of Sentiments 
of Messrs. Judson and Rice. 

The beginning of the present century was marked by the 
operation of two opposite agencies, which were at that time at 
work and struggling for the ascendancy in the bosom of Amer- 
ican society. The one was the infidel philosophy which was 
borne to our shores along with the frenzied enthusiasm for 
liberty that had then just burst forth in the Revolution of 
France; — the other was the spirit of Christian philanthropy, 
breathed from the gospel of Christ, and then just waking to a new 
and more vigorous existence among the people of this young 
and prosperous republic. After the lapse of nearly half a cen- 
tury, we may now look calmly back and observe the different 
characters which they manifested, and the different destinies which 
they have reached. The former, though presumptuous and 
boastful, and at that time ranking among its disciples many a 
popular name, has produced no results that the world values or 
will ever value, and is fast passing away from the thoughts and 
the memories of men. The latter, though modest and unpre- 
tending, and scarcely daring to raise her voice even in the 
Christian church, has moulded the character of the age, and, by 
giving birth to the enterprise of American Missions, has con- 



2 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

f erred inestimable blessings upon mankind, and introduced a 
new era in the history of Christianity. 

At early periods in our colonial history, the condition of 
the Aborigines of the continent had excited a wide-spread in- 
terest among Christian people both in England and the colonies; 
and societies had been formed for their benefit, and at different 
times had employed the labors of many whose names are en- 
rolled among the brightest ornaments of their age. It was in 
this hitherto neglected field of Christian philanthropy that John 
Eliot and the Mayhews, Eoger Williams and William Penn, 
David Brainerd and Bishop Berkely, performed many of those 
pious labors which have secured for them an undying remem- 
brance. As yet, however, the sphere of Christian obligation 
was confined within narrow limits ; and the idea of sending 
missionaries to other lands, who should preach the gospel alike 
to the dwellers in the vales and on the mountains, had scarcely 
begun to dawn upon the churches of America. 

It was not till the beginning of the present century, that this 
obligation began to be distinctly recognized among any of the 
Christian denominations of the country. The Baptist churches, 
at this period, were comparatively few in number, and, save in 
the leading cities, they seldom comprised members of the 
wealthier classes of society. They had struggled into existence 
amid many difficulties, and, though scattered over a wide extent 
of territory and numbering many communicants, they were yet 
but poorly supplied with ministers or even with suitable places 
of public worship. In these circumstances their attention was 
seldom diverted from their own wants as a denomination, and 
their sympathy had scarcely at all been enlisted in behalf of 
heathen nations. Whatever Christian effort they could put 
forth, was naturally directed to the supply of their own scat- 
tered and destitute brethren, or, at the farthest, to sending 
occasional preachers to the Indian tribes that then skirted the 
frontiers of most even of our oldest States. 

The first indication of the growth of a wider philanthropy 
is found in the formation of the Massachusetts Baptist Mis- 



MASSACHUSETTS MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 3 

sionary Society, which was organized in 1802. Its object, 
as set forth in its constitution, was, "to furnish occasional 
preaching and to promote the knowledge of evangelical truth 
in the new settlements within these United States, or further 
if circumstances should render it proper." The missionary 
preachers who went forth under the auspices of this society, 
among the distant frontier settlements, contributed not a little 
by the reports and statements which they circulated through 
the churches, to the awakening of a still livelier interest in the 
spread of the gospel. At the same time also the letters of 
Carey, Marshman, Ward, and their heroic coadjutors in the 
English Baptist Mission at Serampore, began to be widely read 
in this country. The facts which they contained respecting the 
hitherto unimagined crimes and miseries of heathenism, and the 
warm and eloquent appeals of the missionaries, were commu- 
nicated to the denomination in the Massachusetts Baptist Mag- 
azine, and were read with eager interest in every part of the 
land. Numerous associations called mite societies were formed 
in nearly all the principal churches, and their contributions 
were devoted to missions. At nearly the same time Buchanan's 
sermon, entitled "the Star in the East," was republished in 
America. Its thrilling narratives and stirring appeals were 
read alike by ministers, and by laymen — by the merchant in 
the midst of his worldly gains, and by the cloistered student 
beside his solitary lamp ; and they every where gave a new 
impulse to the spirit of missionary inquiry. The growing 
sympathies of the Baptists of America were mainly centred 
in the missions at Serampore, which had been planted by their 
brethren in England, and were now, by their extraordinary 
success, attracting the attention of the whole Christian world. 
They early began to contribute small sums for their support, 
and the grateful acknowledgments which they received from 
Dr. Carey and his associates, served to inflame their zeal and 
increase their liberality. At a meeting of the Boston Associa- 
tion of Baptist Ministers, held in November, 1811, a vote was 
unanimously passed, " recommending it to the members of their 



4 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

body, to make known to their respective congregations, in 
whatever mode they should think proper, the subject of East- 
ern Translations, and to express their readiness to receive, and 
transmit to the authorized persons whatever contributions any 
of their people should be disposed to make." So great had 
now become the interest which was felt in the undertaking of 
the Serampore missionaries to translate the Scriptures, that in 
the year 1812 the sum of four thousand six hundred and fifty 
dollars was contributed to the aid of that object by persons of 
different denominations in the towns of Boston and Salem alone. 

These signs of awakening interest in the conversion of the 
heathen to Christianity, though by no means universal in our 
churches, were yet appearing in nearly every part of the 
country, and gave unequivocal token that a new era was about 
to dawn in the history of Christian philanthropy, as well, 
among the Baptists as among their brethren of other commun- 
ions. It was plain that a spirit was at work, and that princi- 
ples were beginning to be cherished, which, of themselves, must 
soon lead to systematic and organized efforts for the diffusion 
of the gospel among men. As yet, however, there were want- 
ing among us any leading minds who should propose the un- 
dertaking of an American mission, and enlist the energies of 
the churches in its accomplishment. 

In the year 1810 a new impulse was given to the missionary 
spirit in every denomination of Christians in America, by the 
formation of the American Board of Commissioners for For- 
eign Missions. This institution, whose name has now become 
associated with many of the noblest triumphs of Christian mis- 
sions in every part of the w T orld, sprang from the pious zeal 
of several young men, at that time students of theology at the 
Andover Seminary, who had submitted their views to a meet- 
ing of the Congregational ministers of Massachusetts, and de- 
clared their determination to devote themselves to preaching the 
gospel among the heathen. It was no sudden, transitory impulse, 
that had been kindled by the contagious enthusiasm of youthful 
inexperience. With most of them, the sentiment had been 



EARLIEST AMERICAN MISSIONARIES. 5 

cherished for years. It had been nurtured amid the retirement 
of their early studies, and had borrowed strength from all that 
they had learned of the history of man or the revelations of God. 
It had blended with all their manly purposes until it had become 
a settled resolve, and embodied itself in vows and mutual 
pledges, such as have always given birth to the greatest enter- 
prises which history has recorded. 

One of these young men was Adoniram Judson,* an ardent 
and aspiring scholar, who, though but lately reclaimed from the 
mazes of infidelity, had now embraced the gospel with a fer- 
vor made more glowing by its contrast with the gloomy skep- 
ticism in which he had been involved. He had already corres- 
ponded with the friends of missions in England, and was the au- 
thor of the communication which, together with his associates, 
he now addressed to the ministers of the Massachusetts Associa- 
tion. Immediately on the organization of the Board, he was 
sent by the Commissioners to England, in order to ascertain 
what assistance would be furnished by the London Missionary 
Society, in case, as was anticipated, the Congregational churches 
in America should fail to sustain the newly-conceived enter- 
prise. His passage across the Atlantic was interrupted by the 
capture of the vessel in which he had embarked, by a French 
privateer. He was made a prisoner of war and carried into 
Bayonne, where he was detained for a time ; but when released, 
he proceeded on his passage to England under the protection 
of passports obtained from the Emperor of the French. Here 
he was received with the warmest Christian cordiality by the 
Directors of the London Missionary Society, who heartily re- 

* The names of the others were Samuel Nott, Samuel J. Mills, Samuel 
Newell, James Richards and Luther Rice. The two latter names were at first 
signed to the paper which was presented to the ministers, but were afterwards 
withdrawn lest the number should seem too large. The quiet communing of 
these young students amid the shades of Andover, when considered in con- 
nection with all its great and benignant results, might well be compared with 
the scene in the chapel at Mont-martre, nearly three centuries before, when 
the seven founders of the " Society of Jesus " met to exchange their vows of per- 
petual fealty to the Romish Church. 

2* 



b MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

sponded to the views and aspirations which had kindled his own 
mind and those of his associates. The Directors, however, 
wisely declined to enter into any union with the Commissioners 
in America. They feared the evils which would be likely to 
ensue from a divided jurisdiction placed on both sides of the 
Atlantic, and they justly estimated that the churches in Amer- 
ica were already able to sustain the young missionaries who 
had so generously thrown themselves upon their liberality. 
They nevertheless professed their entire willingness to accept 
these missionaries into their service until funds adequate to 
their support could be raised by the Commissioners in America. 

Early in the year 1812, the first American missionaries 
sailed in two separate companies for the distant scene of their 
yet untried labors. Messrs. Judson and Newell, with their 
wives, sailed from Salem in the ship Caravan on the 19th of 
February; and Messrs. Hall and Nott, with their wives, and Mr. 
Rice, sailed from Philadelphia in the Harmony on the 24th of 
the same month. Both these vessels, thus freighted with the 
heralds of Christianity to the heathen, were bound to Calcutta; 
and from thence the missionaries were instructed to proceed to 
the Burman Empire, or, if this should be impracticable, to some 
other unoccupied field in India in which they might find them- 
selves able to establish a mission. 

It was during his long passage across the Atlantic and Indian 
Oceans, and while engaged in the critical study and the transla- 
tion of the Scriptures, that the views of Mr. Judson, on the 
question of baptism, underwent the change which has had so 
important a bearing on the course of his subsequent life and on 
the history of American Missions. While thus removed from 
the controversies of men, amid the trackless solitudes of the 
ocean, and specially occupied in the earnest study of the Word 
of God, he adopted the belief that none but professed believers 
in Jesus Christ are intended to be subjects of baptism, and that 
immersion alone is the primitive mode in which the rite was 
administered. To the same conclusion Mrs. Judson was at 
length slowly conducted, and a few months later Mr. Rice pro- 



BAPTISM OF MESSRS. JUDSON AND RICE. 7 

fessed his faitli in the same general views. They were subse- 
quently baptized, though at different times, in the chapel at 
Serampore, by Eev. Mr. Ward, of the English Baptist Mission. 
As a feature in the character of these independent young 
missionaries, this adoption of new views respecting the ordi- 
nance of baptism was in every way singular and remarkable. 
It was a step directly against all the prejudices of their educa- 
tion and their early associations, and contrary to all their present 
interests and engagements. It must inevitably separate them 
from the sympathies of friends to whom they had always been 
attached, and from the respected and honored Board by whose 
appointment they had gone to a distant continent as mission- 
aries to the heathen, and on whose funds they were now depend- 
ing for their support. On the other hand, the change would 
connect them with a denomination to whose members they were 
strangers, who had as yet manifested but little active interest in 
missions, and who, more than all, were without any missionary 
organization on which they could rely for guidance and support. 
No persuasive invitation was addressed to them, no prospect of 
advancement was placed before them. Never were inquirers 
after truth more entirely removed from the influence of any 
external bias. In circumstances like these we are compelled 
to believe that they abandoned their former opinions and adopted 
new, in accordance with the simple dictates of their own un- 
biassed understanding and conscience ; and that, in the words of 
one of their number, " if there was ever an action performed 
from one single motive, unblended with any minor considera- 
tions, their baptism was an action of this description." 



MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



CHAPTER II. 



Messrs. Judson and Rice at Serampore. — The Difficulties they Encounter. — 
Mr. and Mrs. Judson settle at Rangoon. — Mr. Rice returns to America. — ' 
Interest awakened in the Churches here. — Formation of a Society for 
Propagating the Gospel in India. — A Meeting of Delegates proposed. 

The establishment of Mr. and Mrs. Judson in Burmah and 
the enlistment of the American Baptists in the support of their 
mission, it has been often observed, were brought about by a 
train of events of the most remarkable and providential char- 
acter. No human wisdom or foresight selected the field in 
which were to be put forth their earliest labors, and no sponta- 
neous charity furnished the means which were to constitute their 
support. The honor of commencing the missions of the Amer- 
ican Baptists, let it be confessed, is to be ascribed rather to 
the divine Head of the Church, than to any leading movement 
or agency of the denomination itself. The way was prepared 
and the field was opened by God alone, and it only remained for 
true-hearted men to enter in and prosecute the noble work to 
which they had thus been summoned. 

The little band of American missionaries had arrived on the 
shores of India ; but here they were destined to meet with pri- 
vations and discouragements such as might well have appalled 
any but the most resolute faith, in that early infancy of the 
missionary enterprise. The country to which they had come 
was under the government of the British East India Company, 
whose Directors and Agents were at that time unfriendly to 
the introduction of Christianity among the nations of the East, 
and who, at all events, were determined not to endure within their 
jurisdiction the presence of missionaries from America. Mr. and 
Mrs. Judson and Mr. Rice were at Serampore, where they were 
enjoying the hospitality of Dr. Carey and his associates of the 
English Baptist Mission. "While here, they suddenly received 
an order from the government requiring them immediately to 
repair to Calcutta. On presenting themselves at the Govern- 



DIFFICULTIES WITH THE EAST INDIA COMPANY. 9 

ment House, they were told that they must return without delay 
to the United States, and that the captain of the ship which 
had brought them to Calcutta should not receive a clearance 
from the port unless he would engage to take them back. The 
order also included all the missionaries who had accompanied 
them from America. Their friends at Calcutta informed them 
that there was no hope of the decree being reversed, and their 
only alternative was either to obey the order and return to the 
United States, or to obtain permission to embark for some part 
of India beyond the jurisdiction of the East India Company. 
Their first wish was to proceed, according to the original in- 
structions they had received from the Commissioners, to some 
part of the Burman empire ; but the disturbed relations then 
subsisting between that empire and the English seemed to ren- 
der such a movement impossible. They accordingly obtained 
permission to embark in a vessel lying in the river, bound to 
the Isle of France, in the hope that there they might plant a 
mission, and labor for the object which had brought them from 
America. The vessel, however, possessed accommodations for 
but two passengers, and those were assigned, by common con- 
sent, to Mr. and Mrs. Newell, whose circumstances required 
that they should speedily be settled in a place of quiet and re- 
pose. The others remained in Calcutta, waiting the departure 
of another vessel, and anxiously watching the course of events, 
in order to determine what steps their duty might require them 
to take for the accomplishment of their mission. At the end of 
three months the officers of the government, who had watched 
them with constant jealousy, and who doubtless supposed that 
they intended to remain in the country, issued another order, 
more peremptory than the former, requiring them immediately 
to take passage in one of the Company's ships which was bound 
to England, and caused their names to be printed in the official 
list of passengers about to sail. 

At this crisis, when their last hopes seemed to be cut off, and 
all their plans were about to be frustrated by the stern decree 
of arbitrary power, Mr. Judson and Mr. Rice learned that a 



10 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

ship was about to sail for the Isle of France. They immedi- 
ately applied to the government for a passport, but were re- 
fused. The crisis, however, was too important, and escape 
from the Company's hostile jurisdiction was too desirable, not to 
call forth their utmost exertions to secure their passage to some 
other part of India. The captain was induced to consent to 
their embarking in his ship without the usual papers from the 
government. Accordingly, their baggage having been conveyed 
on board, they embarked under cover of night, and the ship 
proceeded on her voyage down the river. At the end of two 
daj^s they were overtaken by a government despatch, which 
commanded the pilot to conduct the ship no farther, as she had 
on board passengers who were ordered to England. They now 
found all their designs completely foiled by the officers of the 
Company. With heavy hearts they went on shore, where they 
procured temporary lodgings near the bank of the river, and the 
ship proceeded on her voyage to the sea. In this desolate con- 
dition they remained four clays, using every inducement they 
could oifer to the vessels that passed, to take them on board, 
but without success. At the end of this time a letter was 
brought to Mr. Judson, from some unknown friend, enclosing a 
certificate of permission to go on board the ship which they had 
so lately been compelled to leave, and which, if she had not al- 
ready gone to sea, was now lying at Saugur roads, a distance 
of seventy miles. They immediately embarked in boats, and 
after rowing a night and a day they reached the ship, and pro- 
ceeded on their voyage to the Isle of France. 

It had been their design in going to the Isle of France to es- 
tablish a mission on the adjacent island of Madagascar, but they 
now found this to be impossible, and they directed their atten- 
tion to several other countries of the East, though without de- 
ciding which one should become the scene of their missionary 
labors. Yet, even here, they did not escape the hostile influence 
of the Directors of the East India Company. The governor 
of the island was warned of their presence, and directed " to have 
an eye on those American missionaries." Their residence was, 



DIFFICULTIES AT MADRAS. 11 

however, made as pleasant to them as circumstances would per- 
mit, and the governor, it would appear, had little sympathy 
with the spirit which at that time ruled at the council board of 
the Honorable Company ; for he informed the missionaries that 
they were at liberty to go wherever they wished upon the isl- 
and. After a residence of three months in the Isle of France, 
Mr. and Mrs. Judson embarked for Madras, still undetermined 
as to what should be their future course, and calmly waiting the 
indications of Providence to point them to the spot whereon 
they should commence their labors as Christian missionaries. 

At Madras they encountered new proofs of the violent oppo- 
sition to missionary labor, which had become so deeply seated 
in the minds of the Directors of the government in India. Their 
friends, Rev. Messrs. Hall and Nott, in a neighboring presiden- 
cy, had just been ordered to embark for England, and it was ap- 
prehended, if their own arrival at Madras should be reported at 
Calcutta, that a similar order would be issued for their depart- 
ure. War had now broken out between England and America, 
and the officers of the Company were pleased to stigmatize the 
missionaries as political spies, whom it was not safe to leave un- 
watched in any of the English Dependencies. In these circum- 
stances their first inquiry, on their arrival at Madras, was what 
ships were lying in the harbor ready for sea. The only one they 
found was bound for Rangoon, the chief port of the Burman 
empire, and without delay they secured their passage. 

More than sixteen months had now elapsed since Mr. and 
Mrs. Judson sailed from Salem, to encounter the unknown trials 
and discouragements of a missionary life. The career that then 
lay before them was one with which they were wholly unac- 
quainted, and it would be strange if the imagination had not 
lent to it some of the colorings of romance. Yet how checkered 
and troubled had it been ! How marked at every stage by the 
superintending care of Him who shapes the ends of his servants, 
and out of trial and discouragement educes their highest spirit- 
ual good ! Defeated in the plans they had formed, driven from 
the countries which they had entered, harassed and perplexed 



12 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

with the opposition of men who ought to have befriended them, 
separated, by their change of sentiments, from those with whom 
they had always been associated — alone, and at a distance from 
country and friends, the situation of these noble-hearted mission- 
aries was one of no common trial and embarrassment. But 
Heaven had them in keeping, and had appointed them to its 
own chosen work in the land to which they were now about to 
sail — a land presenting, indeed, no attractions of domestic com- 
fort or of social refinement — dark with idolatry and heathen 
cruelty, but soon to be illustrated by signal displays of divine 
grace, and by the heroic labors of devoted missionaries. 

It was on the 22d of June, 1813, that Mr. and Mrs. Judson 
set sail from Madras for Rangoon. The passage was boisterous 
and dangerous, and more than once the ship was near being cast 
upon some of those hidden reefs that line the coral shores of the 
Indian seas. After a passage of three weeks they at length, 
on the 14th of July, came to anchor in the harbor of Rangoon, 
and gazed for the first time at the pagodas and temples that deck 
the town, and the hills which rise in the distance. 

Rangoon is the principal seaport of the Burman empire, and 
is situated about thirty miles from the sea, on a broad bay, known 
as Rangoon river, and forming one of the outlets of the Irra- 
waddy. It has a harbor of the amplest dimensions for the largest 
ships, but the town is built on a marshy meadow which stretches 
along the banks of the river, and, as you approach it from the 
sea, presents a vast assemblage of low bamboo houses, resting 
on piles, with here and there a dwelling of brick or of wood to 
vary its monotonous aspect. In 1813 it was supposed to con- 
tain about 40,000 inhabitants, a small portion of whom were of 
Armenian and Portuguese extraction. The great mass of its 
people, however, were of the Mongolian race, over whom Eu- 
ropean civilization had exerted no meliorating influences. It 
was at that time subject to the sway of a fierce and cruel viceroy, 
who maintained there the dark despotism of his imperial master, 
and governed the wretched natives with a stern and arbitrary 



RANGOON. 13 

rule that crushed, with its iron hand, all freedom of action and 
opinion. 

Rangoon had been the seat of a mission planted in 1807 by 
the English Baptists, and placed under the direction of the mis- 
sionaries at Serampore ; but that mission was now abandoned, 
and those who had been engaged in prosecuting it had all left 
the city, with the exception of Mrs. Felix Carey, the w T ife of one 
of the missionaries. This lady, though of European extraction, 
was a native of the country, and still dwelt at the house which 
had been erected for the accommodation of the mission, in a re- 
tired spot without the walls of the town. On their arrival at 
Rangoon, Mr. and Mrs. Judson might well have shrunk from 
the cheerless scene which lay before them, and recorded the day 
which brought them there as the gloomiest and most distressing 
of their lives. The perils which they had escaped in their re- 
cent voyage, the disappointments which had followed them ever 
since their arrival in India, the separation and the loss of their 
friends and associates,^ the ill health of Mrs. Judson, and the 
darkening prospect of the cheerless heathen land that stretched 
on every side around them, — all reminded them how far they 
were now r removed from human sympathy, and brought them, 
in humble hope and trustful reliance, to the feet of their heaven- 
ly Father. In the unoccupied apartments of the spacious mis- 
sion house they took up their abode, and immediately com- 
menced their preparation for the great work of making known 
the gospel, — which, amid all the disasters and discouragements of 
their course, had been constantly before them, like a serene and 
benignant star peering through the mists and clouds of a stormy 
sky. It had shone upon them in all their wanderings from 
country to country, till it seemed to rest upon that to which 
they had come. Their other plans had been frustrated — other 

* On their arrival at the Isle of France, the missionaries were informed' of 
the death of Mrs. Harriet Newell, who died on her passage to that island, No- 
vember 30th, 1812. She had long been on terms of the greatest intimacy with 
Mrs. Judson, by whom her early death was mourned with all the tenderness of 
a sister's affection. 

3 



14 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

fields of labor had been closed against them, and Burmah alone 
seemed to be the land which Heaven had selected as the scene 
of their humble mission. 

Here let us leave them for a time, and turn to follow the 
fortunes of Mr. Rice, hitherto their associate in the work of 
founding the missions of the American Baptists. While the mis- 
sionaries were detained at the Isle of France, waiting for the 
events of Providence to determine the course of their action, 
it was decided that Mr. Rice should return to America for the 
purpose of awakening the interest of the Baptist churches here 
in the work of propagating the gospel among the heathen of 
the Eastern world. He accordingly set sail for San Salvador, 
and arrived in the United States in September, 1813 ; choosing 
this circuitous passage in order to escape the English cruisers, 
which since the breaking out of the war had infested the ocean, 
and ravaged the commerce of the Americans. 

Immediately after Messrs. Judson and Rice had avowed 
their change of sentiments respecting baptism, and had received 
the rite according to its apostolic form a t t the hands of Rev. 
Mr. Ward, they communicated the fact to the Secretary of the 
American Board of Commissioners, and at the same time stated, 
that should a missionary society be formed by the Baptists, 
they were ready to place themselves under its direction in the 
prosecution of their labors. They also wrote to Rev. Dr. Bald- 
win, stating the same general facts, and urging the importance 
of forming a Baptist Missionary Society. The same views were 
also strongly urged by Dr. Carey and the other missionaries at 
Serampore. These letters were received at Boston in February, 
1813. The intelligence which they contained spread with 
electric rapidity, and imparted to the spirit of benevolence and 
the sense of Christian obligation a depth and fervor such as they 
before had never experienced. Immediately on the receipt of 
the letter of Mr. Judson, a meeting of several of the leading 
ministers of Massachusetts was convened at the house of Dr. 
Baldwin, in Boston, in order to consider the new attitude in 
which these events had placed the churches. But one senti- 



FORMATION OF FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. 15 

ment of deep and fervent thankfulness filled the minds of all 
who were present. The indications of Providence were too 
plain to be mistaken, and the clergymen who were thus assem- 
bled proceeded immediately to form the " Baptist Society for 
Propagating the Gospel in India and other Foreign Parts." The 
society was so organized as to admit of its cooperating with 
any other societies that might be formed for the same purpose 
in other sections of the country, and one of the articles of its con- 
stitution plainly pointed to the organization of a General Con- 
vention, composed of delegates from societies in every part of the 
Union. The formation of this society was the first movement 
that sprang from the new events in the East, and, though appar- 
ently local in its character, is undoubtedly to be regarded as the 
germ of the Triennial Convention of a later period, which for 
so long a time managed the missions of the American Baptists. 
One of the earliest acts of the new society was to direct the 
secretary, Rev. Daniel Sharp, to communicate the circum- 
stances of Mr. Judson to the Directors of the Baptist Mission- 
ary Society in England, and to propose that he should become 
connected with the mission at Serampore, and at the same time 
receive his support from the churches in America.* The sec- 
retary was also directed to communicate to Mr. Judson the 
assurance that, whenever the Board of Commissioners should 
discontinue their patronage, his support would be furnished by 
the society. The Managers of the English Baptist Mission 
declined the proposal, and Mr. Fuller, their secretary, sent a 
reply, in which he urged the importance of having a distinct 
missionary association, which should be entirely supported and 
controlled by the Baptists of America. 

* The letters which were addressed to Mr. Fuller in England, and Mr. 
Judson in Burmah, have been placed in my hands by their now venerable 
writer. They breathe a liberal and generous spirit, and show full well that 
the views which prevailed in the Massachusetts Society were by no means 
narrow or unworthy. The request to the English Directors seems to have 
had its origin solely in the impression that Mr. Judson would be more useful 
and happy if associated with the experienced missionaries at Serampore, than 
if laboring alone. 



16 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

At this juncture Mr. Rice arrived in the United States from 
India, and by his personal narratives and his earnest appeals, was 
immediately instrumental in imparting new energy to the inter- 
est which had been already widely excited through the country. 
In February, 1814, he was present at the meeting of the man- 
agers of the new society, which was also attended by delegates 
from the Haverhill and the Salem Foreign Mission Societies. 
The great object of that meeting was to devise a method for 
enlisting the interest and cooperation of the entire denomination 
in the enterprise of Foreign Missions. It was arranged that 
an address should be prepared and sent to all parts of the Union, 
setting forth the great obligations which God in his providence 
had imposed upon the Baptists of America, in consequence of 
the secession of the missionaries from the American Board of 
Commissioners. Rev. Mr. Rice was also appointed an agent to 
travel in the Middle and Southern States, in order to promote the 
formation of societies that should cooperate with those of New 
England in sending the gospel to the heathen. The measures 
which were thus adopted were every where attended with the 
most gratifying success. 

The intelligence that American missionaries in the East 
had become Baptists, and had requested to be received and sup- 
ported as the missionaries of the denomination, went through 
the country like the sound of a trumpet. It was an event which 
no one had anticipated, and it seemed to appeal to the Christian 
zeal and the sympathies of all the churches with a power that 
could not be withstood. It swept away alike the prejudices and 
the indifference with which the subject had hitherto been re- 
garded, and presented the cause of Eastern Missions as a mat- 
ter of undoubted obligation, and of transcendent interest to every 
one who loved the Saviour and was attached to the principles 
and modes of worship of the Baptists. In the course of the 
year after the formation of the society in Massachusetts, similar 
associations were formed in nearly all the older States of the 
Union, and the addresses which were put forth by many of them 
still remain as delightful memorials of the eloquence and talent, 



MEETING AT PHILADELPHIA. 17 

not less than of the earnest piety and comprehensive zeal, of the 
venerated men who at that day stood at the head of the Baptist 
communion. 

It was soon agreed among these several societies that a meet- 
ing of delegates from all the States whose churches had become 
connected with the cause, should be held at some central place, 
for the purpose of organizing a national society. Philadelphia 
was fixed upon as the place, and the delegates were appointed 
to assemble in May, 1814. After the proposed convention had 
been announced, and the time and place of its meeting had 
been fixed, it immediately became a subject of the most eager 
and earnest expectations among the churches in all parts of the 
land. jNo general meeting of the denomination had then ever 
been held, and, as was natural, the one proposed was antici- 
pated with feelings of interest and hope and Christian thank- 
fulness, which, in these later days, we cannot easily estimate. 
We may well believe, that to thousands of Christian hearts it 
was the subject of many an humble prayer — the burden of 
many a pious aspiration. 



CHAPTER III. 



Meeting at Philadelphia. — Formation of the Triennial Convention. — Ap- 
pointment of Messrs. Judson and Rice as Missionaries. — The Labors of 
Mr. Rice. — Financial Basis of the Mission. 

Ox the 18th of May, 1814, there assembled in Philadelphia 
a general meeting of delegates from missionary societies and 
other religious bodies of the Baptist persuasion in various parts 
of the United States. The great object of the meeting, as set 
forth in its records, was " to organize a plan for eliciting, com- 
bining, and directing the energies of the whole denomination 
in one sacred effort for sending the glad tidings of salvation to 
3* 



18 



MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



the heathen, and to nations destitute of pure gospel light." It 
was an assemblage of plain and earnest-minded men, members 
of a Christian sect which, alike in the old world and the new, had 
struggled with unusual difficulties and deep-rooted prejudices. 
It presented no array of clerical pomp or ecclesiastical author- 
ity, and was, perhaps, but little noticed among the moving 
throng of a great metropolis. Yet it was a meeting of no com- 
mon importance, for it was destined to unite the interests and 
concentrate the efforts of more than a hundred thousand Chris- 
tians, in the execution of the great commission which the Saviour 
of men has entrusted to his chosen disciples till the end of time. 
The meeting was composed of twenty-six clergymen and 
seven laymen, from eleven different States and from the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, many of whom now for the first time look- 
ed upon each others' faces and grasped each others' hands with 
fraternal welcome. Their names stand upon the records in the 
following order : — 



Eev. Thomas Baldwin, D. D. 

" Lucius Bolles, A. M. 

" Stephen Gano, A. M. 

" John Williams, 

Mr. Thomas Hewitt, 

" Edward Probyn, 

" Nathaniel Smith, 

Rev. Burgiss Allison, D, D. 

" Richard Proudfoot, 

" Josiah Stratton, 

" William Boswell, 

" Henry Smalley, A. M. 

Mr. Mathew Randall, 

" John Sisty, 

" Stephen Us tick. 

Rev. William Rogers, D. D. 

u Henry Holcombe, D. D. 

" William Staughton, D. D. 

" William White, A. M. 

" John P. Peek worth 

" Horatio G. Jones, 

" Silas Hough, 

" Joseph Mathias, 

" Daniel Dodge, 

" Lewis Richards, 

" Thomas Brooke^ 

" Luther Rice, \. M. 

" Robert B. Semple, 

" Jacob Grigg, 

" James A. Ranaldson, 

" Richard Furman, D. D. 

Hon. Matthias B. Tallmadge, 

Rev. W. B. Johnson, 



| State of Massachusetts. 
State of Rhode Island. 

State of New York. 



State of New Jersey. 






State of Pennsylvania. 



State of Delaware. 
[ State of Maryland. 

District of Columbia. 
[ State of Virginia. 

State of North Carolina. 

State of South Carolina. 

State of Georgia. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION. 19 

The meeting was organized by the choice of Rev. Dr. Fur- 
man of South Carolina, as President, and Rev. Dr. Baldwin 
of Massachusetts, as Secretary, and the appointment of a com* 
mittee, consisting of Rev. Drs. Furman and Baldwin, and Rev. 
Messrs. Gano, Temple and White, to draft a constitution which 
should give definite character and aims to the body. The fol- 
lowing is the Constitution as it was finally adopted, after being 
fully discussed and amended article by article, by the unani- 
mous vote of the Convention : 

We, the delegates from Missionary Societies, and other religions bodies of 
the Baptist denomination, in various parts of the United States, met in Con- 
vention, in the City of Philadelphia, for the purpose of carrying into effect the 
benevolent intentions of our constituents, by organizing a plan for eliciting, 
combining, and directing the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred 
effort for sending the glad tidings of Salvation to the heathen, and to nations 
destitute of pure Gospel light, do agree to the following rules as fundamen- 
tal principles, viz : 

I. That this body shall be styled "The General Missionary Conven- 
tion of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of Amer- 
ica for Foreign Missions." 

II. That a Triennial Convention shall, hereafter, be held, consisting of 
Delegates, not exceeding two in number, from each of the several Missionary 
Societies, and other religious bodies of the Baptist Denomination, now exist- 
ing, or which may hereafter be formed in the United States, and which shall 
each regularly contribute to the general Missionary Fund, a sum amounting 
at least to one hundred dollars per annum. 

III. That for the necessary transaction and despatch of business, during 
the recess of the said Convention, there shall be a Board of twenty-one Com- 
missioners, who shall be members of the said Societies, Churches, or other 
religious bodies aforesaid, triennially appointed by the said Convention, by 
ballot, to be called the " Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United 
States :" seven of whom shall be a quorum for the transaction of all business ; 
and which Board shall continue in office until successors be duly appointed ; 
and shall have power to make and adopt by-laws for the government of the 
said Board, and for the furtherance of the general objects of the Institution. 

- IV. That it shall be the duty of this Board to employ missionaries, and, if 
necessary, to take measures for the improvement of their qualifications ; to 
fix on the field of their labors, and the compensation to be allowed them for 
their services ; to superintend their conduct, and dismiss them, should their 
services be disapproved ; to publish accounts, from time to time, of the Board's 
transactions, and an annual address to the public ; to call a special meeting 
of the Convention on any extraordinary occasion, and. in general, to conduct 
the executive part of the missionary concern. 
V. That such persons only, as are in full communion with some regular 



20 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

church of our denomination, and who furnish satisfactory evidence of genu- 
ine piety, good talents, and fervent zeal for the Redeemer's cause, are to be 
employed as missionaries. 

VI. That the Board shall choose, by ballot, one President, two Vice-Pres- 
idents, a Treasurer, a Corresponding, and a Recording Secretary. 

VII. That the President, or in case of his absence or disability, the 
senior Vice-President present, shall preside in all meetings of the Board, and 
when application shall be made in writing, by any two of its members, shall 
call a special meeting of the Board, giving due notice thereof. 

VIII. That the Treasurer shall receive and faithfully account for all the 
monies paid into the treasury, keep a regular account of receipts and disburse- 
ments, make a report thereof to the said Convention, whenever it shall be in ses- 
sion, and to the Board of Missions annually, and as often as by them required. 
He shall also, before he enters on the duties of his office, give competent se- 
curity, to be approved by the Board, for the stock and funds that may be 
committed to his care. 

IX. That the Corresponding Secretary shall maintain intercourse by letter 
with such individuals, societies, or public bodies, as the interests of the in- 
stitution may require. Copies of all communications made by the particular 
direction of the Convention or Board, shall be by him handed to the Record- 
ing Secretary, for record and safe keeping. 

X. That the Recording Secretary shall, ex officio, be the Secretary of the 
Convention, unless some other be by them appointed in his stead. He 
shall attend all the meetings of the Board, and keep a fair record of all their 
proceedings, and of the transactions of the Convention. 

XI. That in case of the death, resignation, or disability of any of its offi- 
cers, or members, the Board shall have power to fill such vacancy. 

XII. That the said Convention shall have power, and in the interval of 
their meeting, the Board of Commissioners, on the recommendation of any one 
of the constituent bodies belonging to the Convention, shall also have power, 
to elect honorary members of piety and distinguished liberality, who, on their 
election, shall be entitled to a seat, and to take part in the debates of the 
Convention : but it shall be understood that the right of voting shall be con- 
fined to the delegates. 

XIII. That in case any of the constituent bodies shall be unable to send 
representatives to the said Convention, they shall be permitted to vote by 
proxy, which proxy shall be appointed by writing. 

XIV. That any alterations, which experience may dictate from time to 
time, may be made in these articles, at the regular meeting of the Convention,* 
by two thirds of the members present. 

The Convention having thus completed its organization, pro- 
ceeded to its only remaining work, — the election of a Board of 
Managers, who should be charged with the executive labors 
and trusts of the institution, during the three years which should 
elapse before the convention would meet again. Thus Jer- 



MODIFICATIONS OF THE CONSTITUTION. 21 

minated the first general meeting of American Baptists for 
the purpose of promoting missions among the heathen. It 
formed a new era in their history, and produced results of 
the most beneficial character. Not only was a new missionary 
organization added to the institutions of national philanthropy, 
but a new efficiency and energy were created in a large and 
growing body of Christians whose churches had hitherto been 
widely separated, and whose ministers, comparatively few in 
number, had hitherto wanted the confidence and the enter- 
prise which generous union always imparts to the spirit of phi- 
lanthropic men.* 

The constitution of the new society was framed with but lit- 
tle experience, and almost without the aid of models ; yet it 
was perhaps well suited to the condition and spirit of the de- 
nomination, as it then was, in this country. It originally con- ■ 
tained provisions only for the support of Foreign Missions ; but 
at subsequent meetings it was modified in several important 
particulars, and made to include both Domestic Missions, 
and the establishment of a " Classical and Theological Semi- 
nary " for the education of young men, especially for the gospel 
ministry. The introduction of this latter object into the organ- 
ization of the convention had its origin in the deep sense of 
the importance of a well-educated ministry, which at that time 
pervaded the minds of the fathers and the leading men of the 
denomination. This provision of the constitution gave rise to 
the establishment of the Columbian College at "Washington, D. C. 
an institution which was founded and long managed by the Tri- 
ennial Convention. In 1826 the constitution was again changed, 
so as to exclude from its objects both the care of the college, 
and of Domestic Missions. Some other important changes were 
also made at different periods, but with these exceptions, the 
Constitution, as originally adopted in 1814, continued to be the 
fundamental law of the Convention, till May, 1846, when that 
body was merged in the American Baptist Missionary Union. 

* Of this Board, Rev. William Staughton, D-D. was appointed Correspond- 
ing Secretary, and the seat of its business affairs was fixed at Philadelphia. 
Mr. John Cauldwell of New York was appointed Treasurer. 



22 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

Immediately on the adjournment of the Convention at Phila- 
delphia in 1814, the Board of Managers was organized, and its 
members entered upon the duties which had been assigned to 
them. Their first work was formally to appoint Rev. Adoni- 
ram Judson as their missionary, and to make provision for the 
support of himself and his family. They also appointed Rev. 
Luther Rice to the same office, but directed that he should con- 
tinue, for the present, in the United States, in order to awaken 
in the public mind throughout the country, a livelier interest in 
missions, and " to assist in originating societies or institutions 
for carrying the missionary design into execution." 

Mr. Rice had been already engaged in this work, for nearly 
a year. He had traversed the Union, and mingled freely 
with the people alike of his own and of other denominations ; 
he had partaken of their hospitalities, and addressed to hundreds 
of congregations the rapt predictions of the prophets, and the 
thrilling exhortations of the apostles, concerning the extension 
and the ultimate triumphs of the Redeemer's kingdom among 
men. He had himself stood amidst the temples of heathenism, 
and had witnessed their cruel abominations ; and as, with his 
ardent imagination, he drew the life-like pictures of those be- 
nighted lands, multitudes would hang upon his lips, and follow 
his footsteps with an enthusiasm that had seldom been known 
since the days of the itinerant eloquence of Whitfield. He 
had organized twenty-five new missionary societies, besides di- 
recting to Foreign Missions the efforts and contributions of 
many which had existed before, and had been enabled to create 
an interest in the cause such as all other agencies combined 
had failed to produce. 

It was in circumstances like these, and at a time when ardent 
and gifted minds were few, that Mr. Rice was invited to remain 
at home, and assume, to a considerable extent, the management 
of the new institution for Foreign Missions, instead of going, 
according to his original design and appointment, as a pioneer 
in their cause. He had every quality essential to the discharge 
of a great executive office, excepting discretion alone, — that 
one without which knowledge and piety, and zeal the most 



FINANCIAL BASIS OF THE MISSION. 23 

disinterested, are clearly unavailing. The inextricable confu- 
sion in which his affairs were at length involved, proved so se- 
rious an embarrassment to all the interests of the Convention, 
as at last, in some degree, to cast a shade over his distinguish- 
ed services, and almost to eclipse the singular disinterestedness 
which shone so brightly through all his character. Yet, not- 
withstanding his imperfections and errors — and these had their 
origin in a too ardent and unrestrained imagination, — his 
name deserves to be enrolled among the ablest and most devot- 
ed of the founders of our American Missions, for he accomplish- 
ed a work which no one of his contemporaries could have pos- 
sibly achieved. 

From the examinations of a committee who had been ap- 
pointed to inquire into the number, state, and prospects of the 
Baptist Foreign Mission Societies which had been formed in 
the different States of the Union, it appeared that they had al- 
ready paid into the treasury the sum of four thousand dollars, 
and that, according to the best estimates which could be made, 
the sum of five thousand eight hundred and fifty dollars might 
safely be relied on as the annual income which they would fur- 
nish for the support of the missions of the Board. Under 
such circumstances, and with such resources, were commenced 
the missions of the American Baptists. The beginnings were 
indeed humble, and but little in proportion either to the num- 
ber of our churches or their real ability. The country was at 
that time, it is true, plunged in a war with England, and its 
general prosperity was suffering a sad reverse. In addition to 
this, it must also be remembered, that the era of public charity 
had not yet commenced, and that the people of every class 
throughout the land had not then formed the habit of making 
pecuniary sacrifices in obedience to the requirements of duty, 
or the promptings of benevolence. It was therefore deemed 
a matter of special congratulation and thankfulness, that even 
these inconsiderable funds could be raised for the support of a 
species of philanthropy, whose subjects were the inhabitants 
of a distant continent, and whose claims could be addressed to 
the sympathies only of truly Christian minds. 



24 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Labors of Mr. Judson at Rangoon. — Study of the Language. — Burmah : 
its People : Government : Religion. — Arrival of Rev. Mr. Hough with a 
Printing Press. — Translation of the Scriptures commenced. — Books print- 
ed. — First Burman Inquirer. 

It was not till the 5th of September, 1815, that the packet 
containing the intelligence of the formation of the Baptist Mis- 
sionary Convention, with an account of its proceedings, reached 
Mr. Judson at Rangoon. He had been residing there more 
than two years, diligently engaged in the study of the 
language, and in observing the condition of the country and 
the character of the people. During this period Mrs. Judson 
had suffered from alarming sickness, and was now absent at 
Madras for the recovery of her health. In this solitary condi- 
tion, thus separated from the only person on whom he could 
rely for sympathy and society, we may imagine how welcome 
were the tidings, which now came to him, of the organization 
of the Convention, and the awakening of a missionary spirit 
so widely among the churches. He contemplated these results 
with a delight such as no other events could have awakened, and 
recorded them in his journal with pious gratitude, as new proofs 
of God's merciful designs for the benighted heathen. 

The mission in Burmah might now be considered as fairly 
started, and placed on a basis that promised to secure its per- 
manency, and, with the favor of Heaven, its ultimate success. 
The difficulties and obstacles, however, that lay before the mis- 
sionary were such as might have dismayed any but the most 
resolute faith, and the most indomitable perseverance. The 
language was one which presented many difficulties, especially 
to a person unaccustomed to the dialects of the East, and obliged 
to commence its acquisition only with the most imperfect aids ; 
and, though possessed of unusual aptitude for this species of study, 



THE BURMAN EMPIRE. 27 

and aided by a Burman teacher of considerable learning and assi- 
duity, he yet found himself advancing but slowly in its acquisi- 
tion. Some idea may be formed of the extreme difficulty he 
encountered in mastering this language from the following ac- 
count, written after he had been engaged in its study more than 
two years and a half: — " I just now begin to see my way for- 
ward in this language, and hope that two or three years more 
will make it somewhat familiar ; but I have met with difficulties 
that I had no idea of before I entered on the work. For an Eu- 
ropean or American to acquire a living oriental language, root 
and branch, and make it his own, is quite a different thing from 
his acquiring a cognate language of the West, or any of the 
dead languages, as they are studied in the schools. One cir- 
cumstance may serve to illustrate this. I once had occasion to 
devote a few months to the study of the French. I have now 
been engaged two years and a half in the Burman. But if I 
w r ere to choose between a Burman and a French book, to be 
examined in without previous study, I should, without the least 
hesitation, choose the French." 

The condition of the Burman empire, its people, and its in- 
stitutions both civil and religious, have been often fully de- 
scribed ;* yet a brief notice of them seems necessary in a narra- 
tive of the hinderances and encouragements which the missiona- 
ries have experienced in their attempts to introduce Christianity 
into this ancient home of despotism and superstition. 

The country of Burmah is that part of India beyond the Gan- 
ges, lying between Hindostan on the west and China on the 
east. It formerly included the ancient kingdoms of Ava, Cas- 
say, Arracan, Pegu, and Tenasserim, together with the territory 
of the Shyans ; but at the close of the war in 1826 Arracan and 
Tenasserim were ceded to the English, and a large part of Cas- 
say became independent. The imperial dominions were thus 

* See Mrs. Judson's History of the Burman Mission, Crawford's Embassy to 
Ava, and Malcom's Travels. Upon these I rely for the accuracy of the views 
here presented. 



28 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

reduced to two thirds of their former extent, and now embrace 
Ava, Pegu, a small part of Cassay, and nearly the whole of 
the Shyan country. The population of the original empire has 
been exceedingly variously estimated ; some travellers having 
placed it as high as 30,000,000, while others have made it not 
more than 3,000,000. It may, however, be safely put down as 
not far from 8,000,000 ; but of these, Kev. Dr. Malcom sup- 
poses that not more than 3,000,000 speak the Burman language 
— the remainder, comprising the Arracanese, Peguans, Shyans, 
and Karens, using dialects peculiar to the races to which they 
belong, and to the provinces in which they live. 

The people are commonly described as unusually energetic, 
ingenious, lively, and intelligent, when compared with other 
Eastern races. In strength and activity, both of body and mind, 
they are decidedly superior to the Hindoos, who border their ter- 
ritory on the west, and they are in most respects fully equal to 
the Chinese, who occupy the country nearest them on the east. 
They are not fierce or revengeful, and in their domestic rela- 
tions they are said to be affectionate and faithful ; yet their char- 
acter is marked by distrust, deception, and low cunning, — vices 
which a bad government and a false religion invariably engen- 
der in the minds of a people. Veracity is strictly enjoined in 
their moral code, but it is seldom practiced where there is the 
slightest temptation to depart from it, and a Burman's word is 
never to be relied upon unless he is placed under oath, when he 
seldom fails to speak the truth. Caste does not prevail among 
them, as among the Hindoos, and, as rank is not hereditary, the 
distinctions of social life are less marked than in most other coun- 
tries, whether of Asia or of Europe. In the inferior rank which 
they assign to woman, and in the reckless manner in which they 
trifle with her rights and her happiness, they, however, present 
one feature which always indicates a low stage of civilization. 
The education of women is entirely neglected, and the little in- 
tellectual culture there is in the country is confined to the men, 
who are generally proud and self-confident in all ranks of life, 
and disposed to think themselves superior to the rest of mankind. 



BUDDHISM. 29 

The government is an imperial despotism of the most unquali- 
fied character. The monarch is sole and absolute proprietor of 
the life and the possessions of his subjects, and his word is irre- 
sistible and irrevocable law. In the imperial edicts his name is 
associated with the loftiest and most imposing titles, and he 
styles himself, or is styled by his courtiers, " Lord of the land 
and the sea," and " Master of life and of death." Four minis- 
ters of state, called Atwenwoons, constitute his private council, 
and constantly surround his person ; and four or six others, 
called Woongyees, are the heads of the several departments of 
his government, and the only medium of communication between 
him and his people ; they also constitute the supreme court of 
the empire. An oriental despotism knows no legislative assem- 
bly ; the monarch is alike the maker and the executor of the 
law, and the courts are but the promulgators and interpreters of 
his will. The imperial domain is divided into districts, each 
of which is governed by a viceroy with a subordinate court, the 
presiding officer of which is called the Yahwoon ; but the char- 
acter of the chief who sits upon the throne is impressed upon all 
who bear the royal commission, and the stern decree which goes 
forth from the palace at the capital, is transmitted by the 
Woongyees through ministers of every grade, until it is executed 
upon millions of subjects in every part of the empire. 

The religion of the Burmans is Buddhism, one of the most 
ancient and wide-spread superstitions now existing on the earth, 
and one which, in its various branches, holds beneath its gloomy 
sway the minds of nearly half the human race. In Burmah, it 
arrays itself in a form imposing to the imagination, and stimulat- 
ing to the hopes and fears of men, while it exercises over the 
mind the power derived from immemorial existence, and from 
the traditions and associations of a hundred generations. Buddh 
is the general name for divinity, but the religion to which 
it lends its name is a system of absolute atheism. It teaches 
that there has been a succession of Buddhs, or incarnations of 
divinity, though with long intervals between them, who, through 
various transmigrations, have attained the highest merit of every 
4* 



30 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

kind in previous states of existence. According to the legends 
contained in the sacred books, the last Buddh was Gaudama, 
who was born in the seventh century before Christ, became 
Buddh when thirty-five years of age, and continued so forty-five 
years, after which he passed into the state of JVigban, which by 
some is understood to mean quiescence, or eternal repose, and 
by others, absolute annihilation. The next Buddh is to appear 
in about ten thousand years from the departure of Gaudama, 
and, though the precise time of his appearance is not fixed, 
yet his stature and dimensions, and the outlines of his person, 
are all fully described in the sacred writings. In the long in- 
tervals between the departure and appearance of the Buddhs, 
there is in reality no living God, and this system thus presents 
to the faith of its followers no conception of an eternal being, or 
a great First Cause, existing before the worlds were made, and 
destined to exist when the worlds shall cease to be. It involves 
innumerable contradictions and childish absurdities ; yet it is 
riveted, with all the tenacity of an oriental faith, upon the minds 
of hundreds of millions of immortal beings. 

The principal objects of worship among the Burmans are im- 
ages of Gaudama, which are manufactured of different sizes in 
great numbers, and for which the demand is so great that marble, 
the principal material of which they are made, is not allowed to be 
used for other purposes. These images are kept in private 
houses, or set up in the zayats or public halls of every village, 
and attached to the pagodas or temples which are erected in 
countless numbers in all parts of the empire. These structures 
vary in size and architectural proportions and appearance, but 
are for the most part solid masses of masonry, closed on every 
side, with their small interior space filled with sacred treasures, 
relics and offerings consecrated to the divinity. With their 
lofty spires or pointed minarets standing against the sky, they 
constitute the most prominent feature of every landscape ; they 
tower far above the dwellings of every city, and rise from every 
bluff and hill in all the inhabited parts of the country. Many of 
them are beautifully decorated and covered with gilt " from turret 



BUDDHISM. 31 

to foundation stone," and, when seen at a distance, they often pre- 
sent an appearance of imposing magnificence. On some of the 
pagodas are suspended small bells at different points, with fans 
or sheets of iron attached to their tongues, so that, when moved 
by a gentle breeze, they give forth a pleasant chime, and seem 
to fill the air with mysterious music. Both temples and im- 
ages are regarded with great respect by the people, thougli 
neither are formally consecrated to the purposes of worship. 

The priesthood is a very large and regularly organized body, 
and its members are initiated into the order with peculiar cere- 
monies. The rules regulating the lives and conduct of the 
priests are numerous and exact, though they are but imperfectly 
obeyed. The priests conduct no religious service at the zayats 
or pagodas, and perform no rites of worship for the people. 
Bound to celibacy, they live together in kyoungs or monasteries, 
where they often occupy themselves in the gratuitous instruc- 
tion of such male children as are sent to them for the purpose. 
They wear a peculiar dress of yellow cloth, and are supported 
by contributions of rice and other articles of food, which they 
receive, in their daily rounds, from the people. They attend 
funerals, and frequently preach when requested and paid for 
the service ; but their office is almost entirely a sinecure ; though, 
with all their indolence and indifference, they undoubtedly exert 
a powerful influence over the minds of the people, and render 
them far less accessible, than they would otherwise be, to the 
truths of the gospel as they are proclaimed by the missionaries. 

Though this religion imposes a multitude of ceremonies and 
superstitious observances, it is remarkable for its entire want of 
sympathy with any of the interests or the sufferings of human- 
ity. It makes the attainment of merit the great end of life, but 
this merit consists in any thing rather than the charities and 
amenities which belong to man's higher nature ; hence the in- 
struction of the ignorant, the relief of the poor, the consolation 
of the affiicted and the suffering, are not among the duties it en- 
joins. Its moral code, however, sets forth the sins which are to be 
avoided in five leading commandments : — 1. Thou shalt not kill ; 



32 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

2. Thou shalt not steal ; 3. Thou shalt not commit adultery ; 
4. Thou shalt not lie ; 5. Thou shalt not drink any intoxicating 
liquor. These prohibitions, so far as they extend, are sufficient 
of themselves to exalt Buddhism far above many other false re- 
ligions of the East ; but it contains no positive precepts that are 
fitted to raise and purify the nature of man. Its commands 
and its prohibitions are alike designed for selfish advantage ; they 
refer the doubting conscience to no sanctions of a superior being, 
and point the soul oppressed with sin to no ideals of excellence 
and holiness ; they present " nothing as the ultimate object of ac- 
tion but self; and nothing for man's highest and holiest ambition, 
but annihilation." 

So soon as Mr. Judson had acquired a sufficient mastery of 
the language to be able to write it with tolerable accuracy, he 
prepared a tract on the nature of the Christian religion, con- 
taining an abstract of its leading doctrines. This was his first 
public labor ; and, undertaken as it was when his constitution 
was enfeebled by years of laborious confinement to his perplex- 
ing studies, it gave rise to a disease of the nervous system, 
which attacked his eyes and head so violently, that he became 
unable either to study or even to hear reading in English. 
He was on the eve of sailing to Bengal for the benefit of his 
health, when he received the welcome tidings that Mr. and Mrs. 
Hough and Mrs. White, a new company of missionaries from 
America, had arrived at Calcutta, and would soon join the mis- 
sion at Rangoon. This most gratifying intelligence decided him 
at first to delay his intended voyage, and at length to abandon it 
altogether. 

Rev. George H. Hough, Mrs. Phebe M. Hough, and Mrs. 
Charlotte White, had been appointed by the Board, mission- 
aries to Burmah in the summer of 1815. Mr. Hough had been 
bred a printer, and had worked at the trade in the United States. 
They sailed from Philadelphia in the following December, and 
arrived at Calcutta in April, 1816. Here they were delayed for 
several months, during which time Mrs. White was married to 
Rev. Mr. Rowe, of the English Baptist Mission at Digah, in 



TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 33 

Hindostan. On the 15th of October, 1816, Mr. and Mrs. Hough 
arrived at Rangoon, having already sent before them a printing 
press and a font of Burman types, which had been presented to 
the mission by their English brethren at Serampore. Here 
they were welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Judson with more than 
common delight, both as fellow laborers in carrying forward the 
mission, and as messengers from the distant but unforgotten 
land of their birth and their affections. They had been exiled 
for three years from civilized society, dwelling amid the rude 
barbarities of the heathen ; and now, to receive to their secluded 
home, intelligent associates, and Christian countrymen and 
friends, was a source of joy and thankfulness, such as can be 
fully appreciated only by those who have been placed in similar 
circumstances. Mr. Judson's health was soon reestablished, 
and he set himself with renewed vigor about preparing a gram- 
mar, to aid the newly-arrived missionaries in the acquisition of 
the difficult Burman tongue. 

From the commencement of the mission, the Burmans, when- 
ever the new teachers were spoken of, had been accustomed to 
inquire for the sacred books of their religion. In order to meet 
this natural demand of a shrewd and sagacious people, it was de- 
cided by the missionaries that portions of the Scriptures and brief 
accounts of Christianity should be printed and put in circulation 
as speedily as possible. To the tract entitled ' Summary of 
Christian Doctrines,' which Mr. Judson had already prepared, 
he now added a Catechism, and immediately commenced the 
translation of the Gospel of Matthew, in order that the minds of 
the people might be prepared for the reception of the truth 
when it should be publicly preached to them. The tracts were 
immediately printed, the Summary in an edition of a thousand 
copies, and the Catechism in an edition of three thousand copies, 
and the Gospel of Matthew was published soon after. 

Four years had now elapsed since Mr. and Mrs. Judson first 
established themselves at Rangoon. In all this time, though no 
one had been converted to the Christian faith, yet a great change 
had gradually taken place in the circumstances and prospects of 



Si MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the mission. Its efficiency had been greatly increased by the 
arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Hough, and the donation of the printing 
press. A church had been organized at Rangoon by the mis- 
sionaries, and though they had as yet made no attempts publicly 
to preach the gospel, their character and objects had become well 
known by their conversations with the people, and by the tracts 
which they had printed and circulated, copies of which had pen- 
etrated the interior of the empire. In these circumstances, it 
seemed as if a new era was about to dawn on the progress of the 
mission, and as if the merciful Providence, which had hitherto 
watched over the lives of the missionaries, was about to bestow 
upon them still more encouraging proofs of its favor. Nor 
were these indications destined to be wholly deceptive. In the 
meetings which Mrs. Judson was accustomed to hold for the 
religious instruction of the Burman women, much serious inter- 
est was occasionally evinced in the truths of the new religion, 
and the little circle would often leave the eloquent and gifted 
teacher with a sense of the insufficiency of their own supersti- 
tious faith deeply impressed upon every mind. 

At about the same time, also, Mr. Judson was visited by the 
first Burman who had ever come to him avowedly in the char- 
acter and spirit of an inquirer. Others had visited him to gratify 
an idle curiosity, or to dispute with him concerning the doctrines 
of Gaudama, but no one before had come to ask "how he 
might learn the religion of Jesus," or to express a belief in the 
existence of God. He was evidently a person of rank, and of 
superior intelligence ; he bore away with him copies of all the 
books which had been printed, and left the missionaries with 
hopes of approaching blessings such as never before had been 
awakened in their minds. 



FIRST TRIENNIAL CONVENTION. 35 



CHAPTER V. 



Convention meets at Philadelphia. — Appointment of Messrs. Colman and 
Wheelock. — Mr. Judson sails for Chittagong. — Troubles of the Mission 
during his Absence. — His Return. — Mr. Hough embarks for Calcutta. — 
Arrival of Messrs. Colman and Wheelock at Rangoon. — Death of Mr. 
Wheelock. — Opening of the Zayat. — Baptism of the first Convert. — 
Jealousy of the Government. — Messrs. Judson and Colman go to Ava to 
obtain Toleration from the King. 

In May, 1817, the Convention held its first triennial meeting 
at Philadelphia. Most of the facts and the incidents which we 
have narrated in the foregoing pages were at this time presented 
to the meeting in the report of the Board of Managers. The 
measures hitherto adopted by that body were fully approved 
by the Convention ; and several new ones of great importance, 
the fruit of increased interest and of larger views respecting 
the objects before them, were also recommended as the basis of 
future action. The constitution was also modified in such a 
manner as to embrace the domestic missions which might be 
established in the United States, and also to authorize the estab- 
lishment of a Classical and Theological Seminary, for the pur- 
pose of educating pious young men who should be deemed to 
possess " gifts and graces suited to the gospel ministry." 

At the same meeting communications were read from Messrs. 
James Colman and Edward W. Wheelock, offering themselves as 
missionaries to Burmah. These young men were both residents 
of Boston, Mr. Wheelock being a member of the second and 
Mr. Colman of the third Baptist church in that city. They 
were found on examination to be possessed of worthy talents 
and of true Christian philanthropy; their testimonials were 
approved by the managers, and they were gladly accepted as 
missionaries. They embarked in the following November at 
Boston, amidst many encouraging manifestations of sympathy 



36 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

and love both for them and the cause in which they were en- 
gaged. During this session of the Triennial Convention, the 
Board of Managers appointed three several committees, one for 
the Eastern States, one for the Southern, and one for the "West- 
ern, to examine such young men in these portions of the coun- 
try respectively as might offer their services to the Board as 
missionaries. By the agency of these committees, in different 
portions of the United States, by the wider diffusion of the 
American Baptist Magazine, which had now taken the place of 
the Massachusetts Magazine, and especially by the pious and 
devoted observance of the monthly concert of prayer, which was 
formally recommended to the churches of the country, the 
Convention aimed still further to rouse the energy and to enlist 
the entire ability of the growing denomination, in the great 
work which was now fully before them. At the close of the 
session the members separated from each other with hopes 
greatly raised, and with confidence stronger than it had ever 
been before in their ability to maintain the mission and make 
it a source of inestimable blessings to the heathen. They looked 
forward to the day when they should hear of the happy results 
of their pious efforts and deliberations, and when distant nations, 
illuminated with the light of heavenly truth, should bless the 
Convention for sending the glad tidings of salvation to their 
benighted shores. 

While these auspicious events were taking place in America, 
and new indications of missionary interest were presenting them- 
selves in all parts of the country, far different omens were 
preparing for the little band of missionaries at Rangoon, and 
the flattering prospects which just now lay before them, were 
soon to be broken by dangers and alarms. 

So long a period had now been devoted to the acquisition of 
the language by Mr. and Mrs. Judson, and so much had actually 
been accomplished in conversation with the natives, in the cir- 
culation of the tracts and the Gospel which Mr. Hough had 
printed, that it was decided by the missionaries to commence 
preaching in a more public manner. Yet so many obstacles 



AKKEST OF MR. HOUGH. 37 

seemed to stand in the way of his going abroad among the Bur- 
mans in his capacity of teacher of the new religion, that Mr. 
Judson determined to secure the aid of the Arracanese converts 
at Chittagong, in a neighboring province, whose people spoke the 
Burman language. For this purpose, and also for the improve- 
ment of his health, he embarked for Chittagong, expecting to be ab- 
sent only for a brief interval, and leaving Mrs. Judson to continue 
her meetings for the instruction of the Burman women, and Mr. 
and Mrs. Hough to prosecute the study of the language. Mr. Jud- 
son had intended to return at the end of three months with the 
fellow laborers he hoped to find in Arracan. At the expiration 
of this period, however, when his return was daily expected, a 
vessel from Chittagong arrived at Rangoon, bringing the dis- 
tressing intelligence that neither he nor the vessel in which he 
had embarked had been heard of at that port. Similar tidings 
were also contained in letters which Mrs. Judson. received from 
Bengal. 

While the missionaries were in this state of fearful suspense, 
an incident occurred which was well calculated to increase the 
perplexity and dismay in which they were plunged. Mr. 
Hough, who had continued quietly studying the language at the 
mission house, was suddenly summoned to appear immediately at 
the court house, and it was rumored among the affrighted do- 
mestics and neighbors who followed the officers that came for Mr. 
Hough, that the king had issued a decree for the banishment of all 
the foreign teachers. It was late in the afternoon when he made 
his appearance before the despotic tribunal that was charged with 
the execution of the imperial decree, and he was merely requir- 
ed to give security for his appearance the following morning ; 
when, as the unfeeling magistrates declared, " if he did not tell all 
the truth relative to his situation in the country, they would 
write with his heart's blood." Mr. Hough was detained from 
day to day on the most flimsy pretences, himself unable to speak 
the language, and with no one near him who would attempt to 
explain his situation or vindicate his objects and his conduct. 
The viceroy whom Mr. and Mrs. Judson had known, had recently 
5 



dS MISSIONS IN BUBMAH. 

been recalled to Ava, and he who now held the reins of the 
government was a stranger, and, as his family were not with him, 
Mrs. Judson, according to the etiquette of the court, could not 
be admitted to his presence. The order which had led to the 
arrest was found to relate to some Portuguese priests whom the 
king had banished, and Mr. Hough was at first summoned to give 
assurance that he was not one of the number, and then detained 
by the officers in order to extort money for his ransom. He 
was at length released by order of the viceroy, to whom Mrs. 
Judson boldly carried the cause and presented a petition which 
she had caused her teacher to draw up for the purpose. 

The anxiety occasioned by this arrest and its train of petty 
annoyances, and still more by the protracted and mysterious 
absence of Mr. Judson, was at this time greatly increased by 
rumors which reached Rangoon, of an impending war between 
the English and the Burman governments. There were but 
few English vessels lying in the river, and the English traders 
who were in the country were closing their business and pre- 
paring to hasten away, at any new indications of hostilities that 
should be presented. The condition of the missionaries was 
rendered still more distressing by the ravages of the cholera, 
which now, for the first time, made its appearance in Burmah, 
and was sending its terrors throughout the empire. The poor 
people of Rangoon fell in hundreds before its frightful progress. 
The dismal death-drum continually gave forth its warning sound 
as new names were added to the melancholy list of victims to 
the desolating malady. In these gloomy circumstances, they 
saw ship after ship leave the river, bearing away all the for- 
eigners who were in the province, until at length the only one 
remaining was on the eve of sailing. Harassed with doubts 
concerning the uncertain fate of Mr. Judson, and surrounded 
with perils, they saw before them what appeared the last op- 
portunity of leaving the country, before the threatened hostili- 
ties should begin, and they should be exposed to all the merci- 
less cruelties of barbarian warfare. 

Mr. and Mrs. Hough decided to go on board and escape to 



ARRIVAL OF MESSRS. COLMAN AND WHEELOCK. 39 

Bengal, while escape was still in their power, and they urged 
Mrs. Judson to accompany them. She at length reluctantly 
yielded to their advice, and with a heart burdened with sorrows 
she embarked with her companions, on the 5th of July, in the 
only ship that remained to carry them from the country. The 
ship, however, was delayed for several days in the river, and 
was likely to be subjected to still further detention. Mrs. Jud- 
son, who had gone on board rather in obedience to the entreaties 
of her associates, and the dictates of prudence, than from the 
suggestions of that truer instinct which often serves to guide the 
noblest natures in great emergencies, now decided to leave 
the ship and return alone to the mission house, there to await 
either the return of her husband, or the confirmation of her 
worst fears respecting his fate. It was a noble exhibition of 
heroic courage, and gave assurance of all the distinguished 
qualities which, at a later period and amid dangers still more 
appalling, shone with unfailing brightness around the char- 
acter of this remarkable woman. The event justified her de- 
termination ; and, within a week after her decision was taken, 
Mr. Judson arrived at Rangoon, having been driven from place 
to place by contrary winds, and having entirely failed of the 
object for which he undertook the voyage. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hough, however, after long delays, again embarked and pro- 
ceeded to Bengal, taking with them the press and all the im- 
plements of the printing house. Their removal was subse- 
quently productive of many embarrassments to the mission, and 
seems never to have been fully justified either by Mr. Judson 
or by the Board of Managers in America. 

In this broken and well-nigh ruined state of the mission, 
when its members were about to be separated from each other, 
and its prospects were darkened with clouds, Mr. and Mrs. Jud- 
son were cheered and encouraged by the arrival of Messrs. 
Colman and TTheelock and their wives, who in the year pre- 
ceding had been appointed by the Board, missionaries to Bur- 
mah. They arrived at Rangoon in September, 1818, after 
having been detained several months at Calcutta, in waiting for 



40 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

a passage. They were both young, the former being at the 
age of twenty years, and the latter of twenty-three — of suitable 
education and approved piety and zeal ; and their arrival was 
hailed as the assurance of new pr6sperity to the doomed 
The hopes, however, which were thus excited, were destined 
soon to be disappointed, for they had scarcely arrived at the 
post to which they were destined, when it became evident 
that the health and constitution of neither would be able 
to endure the assiduous study and toil which belong to the life 
of a missionary in the East, and they soon began to give une- 
quivocal indications that a fatal disease was already preying 
upon their frames. At the end of a year, before he had ac- 
quired the language of the country, Mr. Wheelock embarked 
for Bengal, in the last stages of consumption, with no other 
prospect before him than that of speedy death. While on 
the passage, he was seized with a violent fever, accompanied 
with delirium, and in one of its paroxysms he threw himself from 
the window of his cabin into the sea, and was drowned. Mr. 
Colman, though oppressed with feeble health, still remained 
with Mr. Judson at Rangoon, determined to share with him the 
changeful and uncertain fortunes of the mission, to whatever re- 
sults it might please Heaven to conduct them. 

At the period at which these missionaries arrived at the 
place of their destination, the mission had been established near- 
ly five years. Amidst many difficulties, its founders had ac- 
quired the language of the country, and by means of conversa- 
tion with the people around them, and the circulation of printed 
tracts and the Gospel of Matthew, they had made their objects 
and character as teachers of religion familiarly known far be- 
yond the limits of Rangoon. Hitherto, however, the labors of 
the missionaries had been comparatively private. A few Bur- 
mans had been accustomed to visit them at their own dwelling 
to converse with them, and receive the tracts which they kept 
for distribution. No place for public worship or religious teach- 
ings had yet been built, and no public labors had been underta- 
ken. So numerous was now their little band, in consequence 



OPENING OF THE ZAYAT. 41 

of the recent accession, that it was determined immediately to 
erect a zayat, in some spot less retired than the mission house, 
that would secure for them the attention of the people. A site 
was accordingly selected just without the limits of the town, on 
the great Pagoda road, which derived its name from being lined 
on either side with places of Burman worship. In April, 1819, 
the zayat was completed and opened for the sacred purpose to 
which it was dedicated. It was a small, low building, of humble 
pretensions in comparison with any one of the throng of pago- 
das by which it was surrounded, yet it was well suited to the 
purpose for which it was erected, and seemed** an appropriate 
emblem of Christianity standing amidst the magnificent temples 
of heathenism. 

The opening of the zayat was an event of no common im- 
portance in the -history of the mission, and was regarded by the 
missionaries with the deepest interest. " Centuries had rolled 
away, millions of Burmans had been ushered into eternity, and 
God, the Creator of the universe, had never before seen an al- 
tar erected for Himself; had never before heard the voice of 
prayer and praise ascend in the Burman language." This con- 
sideration gave a sacred grandeur to the humble building, and 
filled the mind with the liveliest hopes that it would ere long 
become the scene of new triumphs of Christian truth. Here 
Mr. Judson, in the presence of a small congregation of wonder- 
ing heathen, commenced the public worship of God in the Bur- 
man language, and soon began to witness those results which 
were early promised to all those who should faithfully preach 
the gospel of Christ to their perishing fellow-men. 

It was on the 30th of April, 1819, a few days after the open- 
ing of the zayat, that Mr. Judson was visited by a man who 
came to inquire about the new religion with a spirit very dif- 
ferent from that which he had usually witnessed among the 
Burmans. His visits were frequently repeated, and he soon 
began to express sentiments of repentance for his sins and faith 
in the Saviour of sinners, and to evince those deep and earnest 
moral feelings which, alike in every land and through all ages, 
5* 



42 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

attend the conversion of a human soul to Gocl. Other instances 
of serious attention to the teachings of the zayat soon began to 
present themselves. It was evident that the seed which had 
been sown was already springing up, and giving promise of its 
wonted and unfailing fruit. The new convert, after being faith- 
fully examined by the missionaries, was baptized by Mr. Judson 
in a small pond near the mission house, and was received into 
the church on the 27th of June, 1819. The name of this ear- 
liest Burman disciple was Moung Nau. He became a valua- 
ble assistant to Mr. Judson, and, through all the trials and perils 
to which the mission was afterwards exposed, he continued a 
faithful soldier and servant of Jesus Christ unto the end. On the 
7th of November, in the same year, two others were baptized 
in like manner, and admitted to membership in the church. 
It was at sunset that the solemn and significant ^ite was admin- 
istered, in the waters of the same pond which had before been 
made sacred by the baptism of Moung Nau. " The sun," says 
Mr. Judson, " was not allowed to look upon the humble, timid 
profession. No wondering crowd crowned the overshadowing 
hill. No hymn of praise expressed the exultant feelings of joy- 
ous hearts. Stillness and solemnity pervaded the scene. We 
felt, on the banks of the water, as a little, feeble, solitary band. 
But, perhaps, some hovering angels took note of the event, with 
more interest than they witnessed the late coronation ; perhaps 
Jesus looked down on us, pitied and forgave our weaknesses, 
and marked us for His own ; perhaps, if we deny Him not, He 
will acknowledge us another day, more publicly than we ven- 
ture, at present, to acknowledge Him." 

Among the visiters who had long frequented the zayat to re- 
ceive the instruction of the missionaries, and to engage in dis- 
cussion with them concerning the doctrines they taught, was a 
man of superior education, a teacher of science, and a person 
of considerable distinction. His name was Moung Shwa-Gnong. 
He was a Buddhist, but had received, in former years, some 
vague ideas of spiritual truth, which were now struggling with 
the dogmas of Buddhism in which he had been educated. He 



MESSRS. JUDSON AND COLMAN EMBARK FOR AVA. 43 

was attracted to the zayat by the fame of the new teachers, and 
by the reports which had gone abroad respecting their strange 
doctrines. His frequent visits soon attracted the attention of 
the priests, or of the officers of the viceroy, who mentioned him 
to their master. The viceroy gave no decisive answer, but told 
them "to inquire further about him." This order was reported 
to Moung Shwa-Gnong, and caused an immediate decline of his 
interest in religion, and a suspension of his visits at the zayat. 
Others, also, who had been in the habit of attending the instruc- 
tions of the missionaries, fell off at the same time, and from the 
same cause ; so that, at the end of a few weeks, Mr. Judson would 
sit whole days in the verandah of the zayat, without receiving 
a single visiter ; and that, too, in the pleasant season of autumn, 
while the road was crowded with passers-by, going to or from 
the great pagoda to which it led. 

This single incident, though seemingly unimportant in itself, 
served to assure the missionaries that the least opposition which 
the government should make might at any time blast all their 
prospects, and ruin all their plans; and it forced upon them the 
conclusion that, so soon as their success should become sufficient- 
ly important to attract particular attention, they would be sub- 
jected to persecution, and, perhaps, to banishment from the 
country. They accordingly decided to go without delay to the 
capital of the empire, and make known their objects to the em- 
peror himself, and solicit his favor, or at least his toleration for 
the new religion. If this were granted, they would be able to 
prosecute their pious work without fear of molestation ; but if 
it were denied, no future missionary attempts could be under- 
taken with any hope of success. 

Accordingly, on the 22d of December, 1819, Messrs. Judson 
and Colman, now the only remaining missionaries at Eangoon, 
embarked in a small boat of ten oars, to ascend the Irrawaddy, 
to Amarapura* at that time the capital of the empire, in order 

* This place was subsequently abandoned, and the government established 
at Ava, a large city seven miles below. The residence of the king, however, 
is now at Amarapura. 4 



44 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

to prostrate themselves at the golden feet, as a visit to the emperor 
was called. They left their families at Rangoon, but took with 
them the faithful Moung Nau, as an attendant in their perilous 
passage. They were at a loss what to select for the present 
which custom required that they should offer to the emperor, 
but at length decided on a copy of the Bible, elegantly bound 
in six volumes, and covered with gold leaf, and enclosed in a 
richly ornamented wrapper. For the inferior members of the 
government, they took pieces of fine cloth and other similar 
articles, which were suited to the taste of orientals. The capi- 
tal was three hundred and fifty miles from Rangoon, and the 
banks of the Irrawaddy were infested with robbers, who almost 
nightly committed depredations on the boats that were passing 
along the river, and often murdered their passengers. The mis- 
sionaries, however, were protected from harm by the great Be- 
ing in whom they trusted, and after a passage of more than thirty 
days they arrived safely at the proud capital of the Burman 
empire, the seat of the imperious monarch whose favor they 
had come to propitiate. 



INTRODUCTION AT THE BURMAN COURT. 45 



CHAPTER VI. 



Their Introduction at the Burman Court. — Their Petition refused. — They 
return to Rangoon. — Mr. and Mrs. Colrnan go to Chittagong. — Death of 
Mr. Column. — Converts at Rangoon. — Mr. and Mrs. Judson visit Calcutta. 
— Progress of the Mission at Rangoon. 

On the clay following their arrival at the Burman capital, 
they presented themselves at the house of Mya-day-men, the 
former viceroy of Rangoon, whom they had known, and whose 
wife had shown much kindness to Mrs. Judson. He was now 
attached to the imperial government, in the capacity of woongyee, 
or one of the public ministers of the state. By him and by 
his wife they were kindly received, and were promised such aid 
as they desired in obtaining an audience of the monarch. Mya- 
day-men commanded one of the officers about him to conduct 
the missionaries to Moung Zah, one of the atwenwoons, or private 
ministers of state, — giving at the same time such explanations 
and orders as were necessary to secure the object they had in 
view. The ceremony of their introduction to the golden face 
took place on the third day after their arrival. They were first 
conducted by the officer to whose care they had been committed, 
to Moung Zah, to whom, after they had propitiated him with 
suitable presents, they made known their real objects in com- 
ing to the capital, declared themselves to be missionaries or 
propagators of religion, and expressed a wish to present to the 
emperor a copy of their sacred books, and a petition for his 
royal approbation. 

The manner of the minister was kind and familiar, but his 
words expressed great doubt of their success. They however 
followed his guidance, for it was announced that the golden foot 
was about to advance. The day was that on which was cele- 
brated a recent brilliant victory of the Burman arms over the 
Cassays, and the emperor was about to inspect the troops 



46 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

that were paraded in honor of the occasion. They entered a 
magnificent apartment of the royal palace, which looked out 
upon the extensive grounds on which the spectacle was to be 
exhibited. The grandeur of the hall, the height of the dome, 
and the number of the lofty pillars that supported it, all covered 
with burnished gold, presented a gorgeous display of oriental 
magnificence. Here the missionaries were placed, among the 
company of officers of state who were waiting the appearance 
of the monarch. As they looked through the hall, when his 
approach was announced, they soon caught sight of the " sove- 
reign of land and sea." The scene is well described by the 
graphic pen of Mr. Judson. " He came forward, unattended, in 
solitary grandeur, exhibiting the proud gait and majesty of an 
Eastern monarch. His dress was rich, but not distinctive ; and 
he carried in his hand the gold-sheathed sword, which seems to 
have taken the place of the sceptre of ancient times. But it 
was his high aspect and commanding eye that chiefly riveted 
our attention. He strided on. Every head, excepting ours, 
was in the dust. We remained kneeling, our hands folded, our 
eyes fixed on the monarch. When he drew near, we caught his 
attention. He stopped, partly turned towards us, and said — 
6 Who are these ?' ' The teachers, great king/ I replied. ■ What, 
you speak Burman ? — the priests that I heard of last night ?' 
6 When did you arrive ?' l Are you teachers of religion ?' 
' Are you like the Portuguese priests ?' i Are you married ?' 
* Why do you dress so ?' These and some other similar ques- 
tions we answered, when he appeared to be pleased with us, 
and sat down on an elevated seat, his hand resting on the hilt 
of his sword, and his eyes intently fixed on us. Moung Zah 
now began to read the petition, and it ran thus : — 

" ' The American teachers present themselves to receive the 
favor of the excellent king, the sovereign of land and sea. 
Hearing that, on account of the greatness of the royal power, 
the royal country was in a quiet and prosperous state, we arrived 
at the town of Rangoon, within the royal dominions, and having 
obtained leave of the governor of that town to come up and 



THE PETITION REFUSED. 47 

behold the golden face, we have ascended and reached the 
bottom of the golden feet. In the great country of America, 
we sustain the character of teachers and explainers of the 
contents of the sacred Scriptures of our religion. And since it 
is contained in those Scriptures, that, if we pass to other coun- 
tries and preach and propagate religion, great good will result, 
and both those who teach and those who receive the religion, 
will be freed from future punishment, and enjoy, without decay 
or death, the eternal felicity of heaven, — we ask that royal 
permission be given, that we, taking refuge in the royal power, 
may preach our religion in these dominions, and that those who 
are pleased with our preaching and wish to listen to and be 
guided by it, whether foreigners or Burmans, may be exempt 
from government molestation. We present ourselves to receive 
the favor of the excellent king, the sovereign of land and sea.' 
* The emperor heard this petition, and stretched out his 
hand. Moung Zah crawled forward and presented it. His 
majesty began at the top and deliberately read it through. In 
the mean time, I gave Moung Zah an abridged copy of the 
tract, in which every offensive sentence was corrected, and the 
whole put into the handsomest style and dress possible. After 
the emperor had perused the petition, he handed it back without 
saying a word, and took the tract. Our hearts now rose to God 
for a display of his grace. ' 0, have mercy on Burmah ! 
Have mercy on her king !' But alas ! the time was not yet 
come. He held the tract long enough to read the first two 
sentences, which assert that there is one eternal God, who is 
independent of the incidents of mortality, and that besides Him 
there is no God ; and then, with an air of indifference, perhaps 
disdain, he dashed it down to the ground ! Moung Zah stooped 
forward, picked it up and handed it to us. Moung Yo made a 
slight attempt to save us, by unfolding one of the volumes which 
composed our present, and displaying its beauty ; but his majesty 
took no notice of it. Our fate was decided. After a few mo- 
ments, Moung Zah interpreted his royal master's will, in the 
following terms : ' In regard to the objects of your petition, 



48 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

his majesty gives no order. In regard to your sacred books, 
his majesty has no use for them, — take them away.' 

" Something was now said about brother Column's skill in 
medicine ; upon which the emperor once more opened his 
mouth and said : i Let them proceed to the residence of my 
physician, the Portuguese priest; let him examine whether 
they can be useful to me in that line, and report accordingly.' 
He then rose from his seat, strided to the other end of the hall, 
and there, after having dashed to the ground the first intelli- 
gence he had ever received of the Eternal God, his Maker, 
his Preserver, his Judge, he threw himself down on a cushion, 
and lay listening to the music, and gazing at the parade spread 
out before him." 

After a repulse so decisive they were hurried from the palace 
with but little ceremony. Their rejection was soon known to 
every sycophant of the court, from the highest minister down 
to the humblest menial of the palace ; and they passed out of the 
gates with less difficulty than they entered, and were conducted 
to the residence of the Portuguese priest, to whom the emperor 
had ordered them to be carried. He speedily discovered that 
they were in possession of no secret art which would secure to 
the emperor perpetual life or freedom from disease, and he sum- 
marily dismissed them, without any proposal that they should be 
attached to the corps of his majesty's medical advisers. On the 
following day they made some further efforts to accomplish their 
object, but they were all in vain. The policy of the Burman 
government was not to be changed so as to admit toleration of 
any foreign religion, and the missionaries soon discovered that 
in presenting a petition to that effect they had been guilty of 
an egregious blunder, an unpardonable offence. With their 
hopes thus cruelly blighted, and their spirits dejected at the 
darkened prospects of the mission, they betook themselves to 
their boat, and made preparations for returning immediately to 
Rangoon, more deeply impressed than ever before with the 
conviction that they could expect no aid or countenance for 
their holy enterprise, save from Heaven alone. 



RETURN TO RANGOON. 49 

Their passage down the river was easy and rapid, but the 
scenery along the banks was shaded with the hues of their own 
sombre spirits. At Pyee, one of the towns at which they stopped 
for the night, they met the teacher Moung Shwa-Gnong, who 
had come up two hundred and seventy miles from Rangoon to 
visit a friend who was sick. They narrated to him their adven- 
tures at the capital, and the peremptory repulse which they had 
received from the emperor, and made known their views of the 
danger that would attend any further propagating or professing 
the religion of Christ. He, however, manifested no such alarm 
or dismay as they had anticipated ; but, on the contrary, repeat- 
ed, with a firm voice and with considerable emphasis, the prin- 
cipal articles of the Christian faith. He told them of the prog- 
ress he had made in the understanding of Christianity since he 
saw them last; that he had endeavored to renounce his own 
understanding, and trust in the Divine Word ; that he had ceased 
to worship at the pagodas, though he sometimes visited them 
with the crowd to avoid persecution. " Now," said he, " you 
say that I am not a disciple, — what lack I yet ?" To the ques- 
tions of this speculative teacher they gave such replies as were 
suited to his state of mind ; and informed him that they would 
probably leave Rangoon, since, now that the emperor had 
refused to tolerate Christianity, no Burman would dare to 
investigate, much less to embrace it. To this he replied, with 
great appearance of interest, " Say not so ; there are some who 
will investigate, notwithstanding ; and, rather than have you 
quit Rangoon, I will go to the Mangen teacher and have a pub- 
lic dispute. I know I can silence him. I know the truth is on 
my side*" 

On the 18th of February, after a passage of twenty days, they 
arrived at Rangoon. They immediately called together the 
three disciples, who, with themselves, composed the little Burman 
church, and disclosed the melancholy result of their visit to the 
capital, and the injurious influence which they apprehended it 
would exert upon the future prosecution of the mission. They 
anticipated that the disciples would be intimidated by these 
6 



50 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

tidings of the emperor's refusal to tolerate Christianity, and im- 
agined that if one out of the three remained firm, it would be as 
much as they could reasonably expect. But what were their 
surprise and delight to find that they ail remained unmoved, or 
rather that their faith and zeal were strengthened and increased, 
instead of being diminished by the intelligence. It was evident 
that the new affections which had sprung up in the hearts of 
these poor children of superstition were no ephemeral plants, 
but germs of true Christian character which had been nurtured 
by God's own Spirit. The missionaries had formed the design of 
immediately abandoning the mission at Rangoon, and leaving 
the empire for some country, where their objects would be re- 
garded with more favor by the government, or where the people 
would be less dependent on the monarch's favor than was the 
case in Burmah. The district which they had selected was 
that lying between Bengal and Arracan, inhabited chiefly by 
Arracanese, but under the government of Bengal. This tract of 
country contains about 1,200,000 of inhabitants, who speak a lan- 
guage similar to the Burman. Its chief town is Chittagong, 
where a missionary from Bengal had formerly resided, and bap- 
tized several converts to the Christian faith. 

No sooner, however, was this design of leaving Rangoon made 
known by the missionaries to the Burman converts and inquir- 
ers, than they commenced the most earnest entreaties that the 
mission might not be abandoned. Two of the converts protested 
that if the missionaries went away, they would go with them, 
while the third, who had a wife and family, declared that, 
though he could not go with the teachers, yet, if he must be left 
alone, he would remain "performing the duties of Jesus Christ's 
religion ; " no other would he think of. Some of the inquirers 
expressed the utmost desire that they would not leave them, 
or at least, that they would stay till there were eight or ten dis- 
ciples, — for, said they, the religion will spread ; the emperor 
himself cannot stop it. Such manifestations of inferest in the 
mission, on the part of these simple but earnest-minded disciples 
and inquirers, could not fail to make the missionaries hesitate 



CHITTAGONG A MISSIONARY STATION. 51 

in the execution of their design to leave Rangoon, and they 
were induced by the entreaties which were addressed to them 
from those who had attended their teachings, to reconsider, and 
at length to modify their plans. It was finally determined that 
Mr. and Mrs. Judson should remain at Rangoon, but that Mr. 
and Mrs. Colman should remove to Chittagong, and establish a 
station there, to which the other missionaries and the converts 
might repair, in case any storm of persecution should drive them 
from Burmah. In accordance with this arrangement, Mr. and 
Mrs. Colman embarked for Bengal in March, 1820, and thence 
proceeded to Chittagong, where they arrived in the following 
June. Here, amid the Mahomedans and Buddhists who inhabit 
the country, they hoped to gather again the scattered converts 
whom the English missionaries had left, and, beneath such pro- 
tection as they could receive from the East India Company, to 
acquire the language, and proclaim the truths of the gospel to 
the people. 

Immediately on their arrival they erected a dwelling, and 
commenced such missionary labors as their acquaintance with 
the language enabled them to perform. Mr. Colman was soon 
visited by several of the native converts, and among them, by 
Keepong, their most influential man and teacher. They were 
overjoyed at finding a Christian teacher with whom they could 
converse, and they eagerly solicited Mr. Colman to remain 
among them and instruct them in the way of life more perfectly ; 
for both they and their countrymen were in great need of 
instruction, and their children, whom they would not intrust to 
Buddhist teachers, were growing up in ignorance of letters and 
of religion. He accompanied some of the converts to the villages 
in which they dwelt, and listened to the sermon of their teacher 
Keepong ; but, though he observed among them many interesting 
features of Christian character, he was every where pained 
at perceiving that the doctrines of Christ were mingled with 
the dogmas of Buddhism, and that not a few of the converts 
were still clinging to the belief that annihilation was the perfect 
state to which the gospel was intended to introduce the soul. 



52 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

In their petitions, he would often hear them pray that they 
might attain to annihilation, and in their conversations they 
would speak of it as the highest good which God could confer. 
For the purpose of being more intimately connected with these 
poor Arracanese and their countrymen, Mr. Colman decided to 
remove from Chittagong, where he had received permission of the 
East India Company to reside, and to take up his abode at some 
one of the villages of Arracan, on the confines of the Burman 
empire, where the native converts principally dwelt. He accord- 
ingly selected Cox's Bazaar, a town of nearly twenty thousand 
people, but distinguished for the unhealthiness of its climate. 
He had been settled here but a few months, and was just begin- 
ning publicly to preach the gosnel, when, in the midst of the 
unhealthy season, he was seized with the jungle fever, and fell 
a martyr to his zeal, on the 4th of July, 1822. In the death 
of this ardent and noble-hearted young missionary the Burman 
Mission sustained a severe loss. It was his aim to reestablish 
the broken and scattered church of Arracanese which had been 
formed by the English missionaries with but little acquaint- 
ance with the language, and but little ability to instruct the 
natives, and to plant a mission on the confines of the Burman 
empire, which might also serve as a place of refuge to our 
missionaries whenever persecution or war should endanger their 
situation at Rangoon. These generous and important plans 
were frustrated by his death, and all thought of having an out- 
station, such as he had designed to form, was entirely abandoned. 
Mrs. Colman returned to Bengal, where she entered into the 
service of the missions as a teacher of female children. She 
was subsequently married to the Rev. Amos Sutton, the well- 
known and justly-esteemed missionary of the English Baptists 
at Orissa, in Hindostan, where she has prosecuted, for many 
years, the self-sacrificing labors to which in early youth she 
dedicated her life. 

Immediately after the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Colman 
from Rangoon, Mr. and Mrs. Judson, now the solitary occupants 
of the mission house, had the satisfaction to perceive that the 



ACCESSIONS TO THE CHURCH AT RANGOON. 53 

little circle of inquirers was gradually increasing, and that 
the spirit of those who came to be instructed was becoming 
more earnest and sincere, while the native Christians themselves 
were evidently growing in the knowledge and faith of the gospel. 
They entreated them to abandon the thought of leaving Ran- 
goon, and seemed to feel assured that Heaven was about to 
bestow new blessings on their benighted countrymen. In the 
course of a few months after his return from the unsuccessful 
mission to the capital of the empire, Mr. Judson baptized 
seven additional converts, among whom was the speculative 
and timid teacher Moung Shwa-Gnong, now thoroughly in- 
structed in the Christian faith, and embracing it with the ful- 
lest convictions of a discriminating and educated mind. In 
striking contrast with this long-inquiring and hesitating convert 
was another, Moung Shwa-ba, who, though of inferior educa- 
cation, was yet marked by a fearless decision of character, which 
led him in a few days to the adoption of the faith which the 
educated teacher was engaged for many months in preparing to 
receive. In these new converts, who were now so decided in 
casting off the superstitions of Gaudama, and in receiving the 
gospel, Mr. Judson recognized the proofs of Heaven's favor 
to the mission, and the fruits of many years of labor, and of 
many prayers which Christians in distant climes had mingled 
with his own, that God would bestow his blessing upon the 
Burmans. He was now bound to Rangoon by new ties, the 
sympathies of Christian hearts, and the warm affections of those 
who regarded him as their spiritual father and friend, their 
guide to the kingdom of Heaven. 

When we consider that the refusal of the emperor to tolerate 
Christianity among his subjects was well known both at Ava 
and at Rangoon, we may form some conception of the circum- 
stances in which the little company of Burman Christians were 
placed, and appreciate the firm trust in God by which they 
were made willing, in the face of an oriental despotism, to re- 
nounce the religion of Buddh, and profess the forbidden and 
proscribed faith of the gospel. The humble church was en- 
6* 



54 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

vironed with innumerable dangers ; for each one of its members 
had adopted the new religion at the peril of his life. It owed 
its safety in part, no doubt, to its obscurity and the smallness of 
its numbers, and perhaps not less to the caution and watchful- 
ness with which its ordinances were performed and its affairs 
administered. 

Amidst these encouraging indications of Heaven's favor to 
the mission, it became evident that the health of Mrs. Judson 
was seriously undermined by the pernicious influences of the 
climate. Her strength was already so far reduced by insidious 
disease as to require immediate attention and medical advice 
superior to that which Rangoon could afford. She made ar- 
rangements for embarking without delay for Bengal, and as she 
was now too ill to go alone, as she at first intended, Mr. Judson 
prepared to accompany her. They took passage on the 19th of 
July, 1820, for Calcutta, where they arrived on the 8th of August, 
after a pleasant voyage, during which, how T ever, the health of 
Mrs. Judson experienced no perceptible benefit. She was soon 
removed to the purer atmosphere and the more congenial soci- 
ety of Serampore. Here she was attended by physicians of 
eminent skill, but for a long time without any favorable change ; 
until, so important was the presence of Mr. Judson at Rangoon, 
he was about to leave her with her friends of the English 
Mission and return alone to the post of his missionary duty. 
It pleased Heaven, however, soon to open to her the prospect of 
returning health ; and it being no longer deemed indispensable 
that she should remain in Bengal, she decided to hasten back 
with her husband. They arrived at Rangoon on the 5th of 
January, 1821, after an absence of nearly six months, and were 
welcomed by the disciples and friends whom they had left, with 
the warmest and most affectionate greeting. The little flock, 
though so long deprived of the shepherd's care, and to some 
extent scattered by the extortions of the petty tyrants of the 
government by whom they were surrounded, had remained 
unharmed amidst their foes. Not one had dishonored his pro- 
fession or proved recreant to the principles which he had em- 



PROGRESS OF THE MISSION AT RANGOON. 55 

braced ; and, as Mr. Judson on the day of his arrival joined with 
them in their evening devotion at the mission house, the hearts 
of all were alike subdued by one common sentiment of gratitude 
and praise. 

The missionaries were now quietly settled on the spot which 
they had long since learned to call their home. The instruc- 
tions of the zayat and the translation of the Scriptures were all 
resumed, and the mission began again silently to put forth its 
influence upon the Burmans who came to inquire of Mr. Jud- 
son concerning the Eternal God whose existence and govern- 
ment he proclaimed, and the immortal life of the soul which he 
taught was the great object of religion to secure. In the work 
of translating the Scriptures, he employed the assistance of 
Moung Shwa-Gnong, and in other parts of his missionary labors 
he was aided by Moung Shwa-ba, both of whom proved them- 
selves to be most valuable helpers, and furnished a striking 
illustration of the superior advantage which persons of cultivated 
intellect always possess over rude and unlettered men. Mya- 
day-men, the former viceroy of Rangoon, who had befriended 
Messrs. Judson and Colman in their visit to the capital, was 
now viceroy for the second time, and, beneath his mild and 
somewhat tolerant government, the complaints which were made 
against the Christians were but little regarded ; three new con- 
verts were successively added to the church, and the sacred 
Scriptures were slowly and constantly preparing, to be read in 
the Burman tongue by the people of the whole empire. 



56 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Mrs. Judson' s Visit to the United States in 1822. — Her History of the Mis- 
sion. — Arrival of Dr. Price at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson and Price go to 
Ava. — Interview with the King. — A Branch of the Mission established at 
Ava. — Arrival of Mrs. Judson and Mr. and Mrs. Wade at Rangoon. — 
Messrs. Hough and Wade at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson and Price at Ava. — 
Removal of the Government to Amarapura. 

The mission had gone on thus prosperously for several 
months after the return of the missionaries from Bengal, when 
Mrs. Judson was again afflicted with that distressing malady, 
the chronic liver complaint, which had never been entirely 
eradicated from her constitution. All hope of her recovery 
while she should remain in a tropical climate seemed now to 
be at an end ; and it was decided that she should take passage 
to the United States, and try the efficacy of the air and scenery 
of her native land, and the cheerful sympathies of the friends 
and kindred from whom she had been so long separated. On 
the 21st of August, 1821, she embarked for Calcutta, intend- 
ing to take passage thence directly to this country. The feel- 
ings with which she parted from those whom she left behind 
may be well imagined, and they are briefly chronicled in 
her own eloquent journal. Rangoon had become to her the 
home of her affections as well as the place of her residence, 
and as she saw its glittering pagodas fading in the distance, 
and thought of her own declining health, of the dangers of the 
voyage, and the uncertainties which still lowered like threat- 
ening clouds around the prospects of the mission, she might 
naturally apprehend that she was gazing for the last time on the 
spot where were garnered up her richest earthly hopes. 

On arriving at Calcutta she found no vessel in which she 
could embark for America and after considerable delay, in ac- 
cordance with the desire of her friends, she took a cabin which 
was gratuitously offered her in a ship bound to England. On 



MRS. JUDSON's YISIT TO THE UNITED STATES. 57 

arriving at Liverpool, her health, though decidedly improved 
since leaving Rangoon, was yet far from being reestablished. 
In London she was received into the hospitable family of Mr. 
Joseph Butterworth, a member of the Methodist persuasion, 
and a gentleman of high public standing and of the greatest 
excellence of character, where she made the acquaintance of 
several of the distinguished philanthropists and statesmen of the 
day. In the agreeable Christian society to which she was thus 
introduced, and in travelling to Scotland, and visiting the min- 
eral springs at Cheltenham, Mrs. Judson spent several months 
in England, every where vindicating the character and objects 
of the Christian missionary, and commending them to the re- 
spect and admiration of mankind. 

In August, 1822, she took leave of her British friends, to 
whom she had become warmly endeared, and embarked on 
board the ship Amity for New York, where she arrived on 
the 25th of the following September. The visit of Mrs. Jud- 
son to the United States forms an epoch of no inconsiderable 
importance in the progress of interest in missions, among the 
churches of various denominations in this country. She visit- 
ed several of the leading cities of the Union ; met a large num- 
ber of associations of ladies ; attended the session of the Tri- 
ennial Convention at Washington; and, in a multitude of social 
circles, alike in the South and the North, recited the thrilling 
narrative of what she had seen and experienced during the 
eventful years in which she had dwelt in a heathen land. But 
relaxation and travelling for health, and interviews with reli- 
gious friends, were not her only occupation. In her retirement, 
in addition to maintaining an extensive correspondence, she 
found time to prepare the history of the mission in Burmah, 
which was published in her name, in a series of letters address- 
ed to Mr. Butterworth, the gentleman beneath whose roof she 
had been a guest during her residence in England. These rec- 
ords, which were principally compiled from documents which 
had been published before, contained the first continuous ac- 
count of the Burman Mission ever given to the public. The 



58 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

work was widely read both in England and America, and re- 
ceived the favorable notice of several of the leading organs of 
public criticism.* 

The influence which Mrs. Judson exerted in favor of the 
cause of missions during her brief residence of eight or nine 
months in the United States, it is now hardly possible to esti- 
mate. She enlisted more fully in the cause not a few leading 
minds, who have since rendered it signal service both by eloquent 
vindications and by judicious counsels ; and by the appeals which 
she addressed to Christians of her own sex, and her fervid 
conversations with persons of all classes and denominations in 
America, as well as by the views which she submitted to the 
managers of the mission, a new zeal for its prosecution was 
every where created, and the missionary enterprise, instead of 
being regarded with doubt and misgiving, as it had been by 
many even among Christians, began to be understood in its 
higher relations to all the hopes of man, and to be contemplated 
in its true grandeur and its ennobling moral dignity. 

In the spring of 1823, the health of Mrs. Judson, though but 
partially restored, was yet so far established, as, in her own 
judgment, to admit of her returning to Rangoon. Accordingly, 
though quite contrary to the advice, and even the urgent solicita- 
tions of her friends, she prepared again to take leave of her 
native land and hasten back to the distant shore which she had 
so reluctantly left. At the meeting of the Convention, in May of 
that year, Mr. Jonathan Wade of New York, and Mr. George 
D. Boardman, then a tutor in Waterville College, Maine, had 
offered themselves as missionaries to the East. Mr. Wade was 
soon after regularly appointed by the Board, and with his 
wife was directed to take passage for Calcutta in the ship with 
Mrs. Judson. They sailed from Boston on the 22d of June, 
amidst the most affecting demonstrations of personal affection 
and of Christian sympathy. They bore with them a letter to the 
emperor of Burmah, and a valuable present from the Conven- 

* See an article in the London Quarterly Review, Vol. XXXIII. 



EYENTS AT RANGOON. 59 

tion, such as was thought to be fitted to excite the interest of 
his Burman majesty and to conciliate his favor towards the mis- 
sionaries. They arrived at Calcutta in the following October, 
and at Rangoon on the 5th of December. Thus, after an 
absence of two years and three months, was Mrs. Judson re- 
stored to her husband and to the mission, with health and spirits 
remvigorated, with a reinforcement of additional fellow-laborers, 
and with the happy consciousness that she had been enabled to 
awaken a deeper interest for the heathen in the minds of multi- 
tudes of Christians both in England and America. 

From this brief episode in our narrative, let us return and 
trace the fortunes of the mission at Rangoon, during the absence 
of Mrs. Judson in America. They had been marked, as will 
appear, by events of unusual interest and importance. 

In the autumn of 1821, while Mr. Judson was prosecuting 
the labors of the mission alone, a complaint was brought to the 
viceroy against the teacher Moung Shwa-Gnong, by several 
of the leading men of the village to which he belonged, who 
had conspired against him, for being an avowed enemy of 
Buddhism. So determined were his enemies, that he deemed 
it prudent to withdraw himself for a time from Rangoon, espe- 
cially as the viceroy had declared that, if the complaints were 
true, he was worthy of death. The priests and officers of the 
government were also excited to new vigilance with respect to 
the Burman converts, and Mr. Judson found himself soon oblig- 
ed to close the zayat, and to suspend his public preaching on 
the Sabbath. The native Christians came privately to the 
mission house for instruction and sympathy, but the inquirers 
withdrew altogether. Soon after these events, and before the 
mission had recovered from their injurious influence, the solitary 
condition of Mr. Judson was relieved by the arrival of Rev. 
Jonathan Price, M. d. and Mrs. Price, who had been appointed 
missionaries to Burmah in May, 1821, and soon after sailed 
for Calcutta. They reached Rangoon, December 13th, of the 
same year, and in the course of the following month Mr. and 
Mrs. Hough also returned from Serampore, bringing with them 



60 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the printing press, whose absence had occasioned no small delay 
and inconvenience to the labors of Mr. Judson. 

Thus reinforced by the arrival of additional missionaries, 
and encouraged by the cessation of opposition, and by the re- 
turn of the native converts bringing with them new inquirers, 
Mr. Judson again opened the zayat and resumed his public 
teachings. He soon had the happiness of baptizing several 
more native converts on the profession of their faith, who made 
the native members of the church seventeen, besides one who 
had died. The fact that Dr. Price was a physician and pos- 
sessed of medical skill being reported to the golden ears, he was 
soon summoned to Ava by order of the king. It was of course 
necessary that Mr. Judson should accompany him, as he was 
yet ignorant alike of the language of the country and the 
customs of the court. Mr. Judson also hoped to make this 
summons to the capital an occasion of introducing the new re- 
ligion again to the notice of the monarch and his courtiers. Ac- 
cordingly the work of translation, which had lately been prose- 
cuted with great assiduity, was reluctantly abandoned, and on the 
28th of August the missionaries embarked for Ava, where they 
arrived after a month's passage up the Irrawaddy, and presented 
themselves at the palace of the king. 

At the first interview his majesty inquired particularly of 
Dr. Price concerning his medical skill, but took no notice of 
Mr. Judson. He was, however, recognized by the minister, 
Moung Zah, whom he had known on his former visit to the cap- 
ital, and by him was privately encouraged to remain at Ava. 
At subsequent visits to the palace, however, the attention of 
the king was attracted to Mr. Judson, and he put many curious 
questions respecting his character and his labors at Rangoon. 
On his first noticing him, after having conversed with Dr. Price, 
he entered into the following conversation: "And you in 
black, what are you ? — a medical man too ? " " Not a medical 
man, but a teacher of religion, your majesty." After making 
several inquiries about the new religion, " he then," says Mr. 
Judson, " put the alarming question whether any had embraced 



MESSRS. JUDSON AND PRICE AT AVA. 61 

it. I evaded by saying, i Not here.' He persisted, ' Are there 
any in Rangoon ?' ' There are a few.' i Are they foreign- 
ers ? ' I trembled for the consequence of an answer which 
might involve the little church in ruin ; but the truth must be 
sacrificed or the consequences hazarded. I therefore replied, 
* There are some foreigners, and some Burmans.' He remain- 
ed silent for a few moments, but presently showed that he was 
not displeased, by asking a great variety of questions on religion 
and geography and astronomy, some of which were answered 
in such a satisfactory manner as to occasion a general expres- 
sion of approbation in all the court present." On another oc- 
casion the king again inquired about the Burmans who had 
embraced the Christian religion. " Are they real Burmans ? 
Do they dress like other Burmans ? " " I had occasion to re- 
mark," says Mr. Judson, "that I preached every Sunday. 
' "What ! in Burman ? ' ' Yes.' l Let us hear how you 
preach ! ' I hesitated. An atwenwoon repeated the order. 
I began with a form of worship which first ascribes glory to 
God, and then declares the commands of the law and the gospel; 
after which, I stopped. ' Go on,' said another atwenwoon. 
The whole court was profoundly silent. I proceeded with a 
few sentences declarative of the perfections of God, when his 
majesty's curiosity was satisfied, and he interrupted me." In a 
subsequent conversation, after answering some questions of the 
king about Gaudama, one of the atwenwoons, who had not 
hitherto been friendly to Mr. Judson, expressed his approbation 
of what he had said, and proceeded to relate a conversation 
which he himself had held with the American teacher about 
God and Christ, and the doctrines of the gospel. Moung Zah 
also, encouraged by the example of his associate, began to 
speak of God before his majesty, and said, "Nearly all the 
world, your majesty, believe in an eternal God; all except 
Burmah and Siam — these little spots ! " 

Mr. Judson also held frequent conversations with several of 
the princes and princesses of the court, who were members of 
the royal family, in the course of which they often gave him an 
7 



62 MISSIONS IN BUR3IAH. 

opportunity to speak of his religion, — to invite to it their per- 
sonal attention, and also to invoke for it the toleration of the 
government. At length, after repeated applications and delays, 
he procured a lot of land, with the emperor's assent, situated on 
the bank of the river, just without the walls of the city, and 
built upon it a small house, — Dr. Price in the mean time hav- 
ing been quartered by the emperor in a house near the palace. 
When Mr. Judson called on the proper officer for the purpose 
of paying for the land which he had purchased, the officer re- 
fused the money which was offered, saying : " Understand, teach- 
er, that we do not give you the entire owning of this ground. 
We take no recompense, lest it become American territory. 
We give it to you for your present residence only, and when you 
go away we shall take it again." He was very particular in his 
wording of the writing of conveyance, and often called upon 
those around him to witness that the land did not become the 
property of the American teacher, evidently having in his mind 
an apprehension that if it should, the American government 
might at length establish its jurisdiction there, as the English 
had done in Bengal. 

The missionaries had now spent several months at the Bur- 
man court. Dr. Price was in high favor with the monarch on 
account of his medical skill, while Mr. Judson had become 
familiarly acquainted with many of the high officers of the gov- 
ernment, and had often been noticed with marked curiosity and 
attention by the emperor himself. It was now, however, no 
longer necessary that he should remain at the capital, and he 
began to make preparations for returning to Rangoon in order 
to meet Mrs. Judson, who might soon be expected back from 
America. In taking leave of the members of the government, 
he was invited by more than one of them to return to Ava 
and settle there, and Prince M., a half brother of the king, 
specially pressed him to hasten back, and bring with him all the 
Christian Scriptures, and translate them into Burman ; " for," 
added he, " I wish to read them all." On going to take leave 
of the king, his majesty asked him why he wished to go away, 



ARRIVAL OF MISSIONARIES. 63 

and expressed his fear that the other teacher, Dr. Price, would 
be lonely and unhappy. On being informed that he was going 
only for a short time to bring his wife, the female teacher, and 
his goods, the king looked at him and said, " Will you then 
come again ? When you come again is it your intention to re- 
main permanently, or will you go back and forth as foreigners 
commonly do ? " And on being answered that he intended to 
remain permanently, his majesty expressed his approbation. 

It was early in February, 1823, when Mr. Judson reached 
Rangoon, after a passage of seven days from Ava. He found 
that the little church had been again scattered by the extortions 
and persecutions of the government, under a new viceroy, who 
had succeeded the tolerant Mya-day-men. One of its members, 
a female of great excellence of character and of steadfast Chris- 
tian faith, had died during his absence, and, save those in his 
own immediate employ, the others had all removed from Ran- 
goon. Many of them, however, soon gathered around their 
teacher, and he immediately resumed such public labors as he 
deemed consistent with the safety of the mission, and devoted 
his time especially to completing the translation of the New 
Testament, and preparing an epitome of the Old Testament, 
which should contain a complete though brief summary of Scrip- 
ture history from the Creation to the coming of Christ, together 
with an abstract of the leading prophecies relating to the Mes- 
siah. Both of them were completed during the following sum- 
mer, and were received with the utmost eagerness by the native 
Christians, even before they could be printed by Mr. Hough, who 
had left a portion of the Burman types at Bengal. In this man- 
ner passed away the months at Rangoon till the arrival of Mrs. 
Judson and her fellow passengers, Mr. and Mrs. Wade, which 
took place, as we have already stated, in December, 1823. 

In this new condition of the mission, it was arranged that Mr. 
Hough and Mr. Wade, with their families, should remain at 
Rangoon, and that Mr. and Mrs. Judson should proceed imme- 
diately to Ava, and attempt to form a station there, beneath the 
favorable auspices which seemed to be secured by the medical 



64 MISSIONS IN BUEMAH. 

reputation of Dr. Price. During the absence of Mr. Judson 
from Ava, the king had often spoken of hi in, and inquired why 
he delayed his return so long ; and the queen had also express- 
ed a strong desire to see Mrs. Judson in her foreign dress. 
Their passage up the Irrawaddy was tedious and uncomfortable, 
being six weeks in length. They would often leave their boat 
and walk along the banks of the river, through villages in which 
a foreign female was a sight never before beheld. They were 
followed by crowds who were eager to witness the unwonted 
spectacle, yet in no case did they receive the slightest insult or 
rudeness. On their arrival at the golden city, they were soon 
able to prepare for themselves a residence, and to commence 
their missionary labors beneath the very eye of the monarch. 
Mr. Judson preached on the Sabbath, and held worship in the 
Burman language every evening at his own house, while Mrs. 
Judson opened a school for the instruction of such Burman girls 
as she could induce to join it. The king and queen were at 
this time absent from the capital, and all foreigners were re- 
garded with suspicion and treated with coolness by the minis- 
ters of state, on account of the war with the English government 
in India with which the country was now threatened. This, 
however, did not prevent some of their former friends from re- 
viving their previous acquaintance with them, and Mrs. Judson, 
immediately on her arrival, was visited and welcomed to the 
capital by the lady of the former viceroy of Rangoon — now a 
widow, living in retirement from the court, having lost by the 
death of her husband all the power and rank she had before 
possessed. 

In a few months after the return of the missionaries to Ava, 
the government was formally removed, with great pomp and 
ceremony, to that city. The king and the royal family, who for 
two years had been living at Ava, in order to superintend the 
erection of a new palace, about the time of Mr. Judson's return 
went back to Amarapura, for the purpose of making the transfer 
of the golden presence from one city to the other as striking 
and impressive as possible. The ceremonial was one of unusual 



IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT REMOVED TO AVA. 65 

splendor and magnificence, and presented a scene well cal- 
culated to fill the imagination with the sublimest conceptions 
of oriental grandeur and wealth. There were the great officers 
of state, the woongyees and atwenwoons, in their robes of of- 
fice, the saupwars of conquered provinces, with their troops 
of attendants, heroes who had been distinguished in the wars 
of the empire, and people of every degree, to the number of 
hundreds of thousands, who had assembled to do homage to the 
stern monarch of the land and sea, the master of life and death, 
and lord of the celestial elephant. Shouts and acclamations 
rent the air as the imperial retinue approached the gates of the 
Golden City. At the head of the procession, and the most con- 
spicuous and beautiful object which it presented, came the white 
elephant, with his numerous suite, an object of Burman ado- 
ration, covered with jewels and ornaments of gold ; next were 
seen the king and queen in plain attire, the only persons in 
all the throng who appeared unadorned ; following these were 
the great councillors, both public and private, and the viceroys 
of provinces and cities, who had come with their retinues from 
the remotest confines of the empire to offer fealty to the mon- 
arch, and to swell the grandeur of the festival. 

Amidst this splendid array of all the iifsignia of power and 
majesty, the king took possession of the new palace, and re- 
established the imperial government in its ancient seat at Ava. 
The missionaries, with a few European residents at the capital, 
gazed with wonder upon this unwonted display of grotesque 
magnificence, made to gratify the pride of the Burman monarch. 
They were not noticed by the royal pair, and, although Mr. Jud- 
son occasionally visited the palace, yet no inquiry was ever made 
for the female teacher whom the queen had formerly expressed 
her desire to see in her foreign dress. It was not long before 
an order was issued that no European should enter the palace, 
and in a few days afterwards the tidings of the approaching 
war, which had hitherto been brought only in uncertain rumors, 
were fully confirmed by intelligence that an English fleet had 
arrived in the river, and that Rangoon had already fallen into 
their hands. 7 * 



MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



War between the Burmans and the English. — Capture of Rangoon. — Perils of 
Messrs. Hough and Wade, and their Families. — Advance of the English to- 
wards Ava. — Imprisonment of the Missionaries there. — Their removal to 
Oung-pen-la. — Their protracted Sufferings. — Heroic Services of Mrs. Jud- 
son. — Liberation of the Missionaries. — Their Agency in Negotiations with 
the English. — Reception of Mr. and Mrs. Judson by Sir Archibald Campbell. 
— Their return to Rangoon. — The Mission removed to Amherst. — Mr. 
Judson joins the English Embassy to Ava. — Death of Mrs. Judson. 

The war which now broke out between the Burman govern- 
ment and that of the English in Bengal, forms an important 
era in the history of the mission. Its first effect was to put an end 
to the labors of the missionaries, and to involve them in unspeak- 
ble sufferings ; yet, in accordance with a mysterious though be- 
neficent law of human affairs, its ultimate issues have undoubt- 
edly proved favorable, not only to the interests of our own par- 
ticular mission, but also to the further extension of Christian 
civilization among the thickly-peopled countries of eastern India. 
The war had its origin in feuds which had long existed on the 
frontiers of Chittagong. They were such as commonly spring 
up along the borders of opposite and neighboring jurisdictions, 
but were rendered unusually violent among the Burmans by 
their jealousy of the wide extension of British power. Some 
criminals and disaffected persons had escaped from the Burman 
territory to that of Chittagong, where, as was alleged, they 
were protected by the English government. The king, exas- 
perated by the troubles which he thus experienced, and count- 
ing on the rising of several of the neighboring provinces that 
wished to throw off the British yoke, raised an army of thirty 
thousand men, under Bandula, his greatest warrior, and was 
preparing to make war on the governor-general, whom he felt 
sure of bringing speedily to the terms he desired. In this state 
of affairs the English determined to anticipate the Burman in- 
vasion, and to avail themselves of the advantage of beginning 
the war, which it was thought could now no longer be averted. 



CAPTURE OF RANGOON. 67 

On the 10th of May, 1824, the English transports suddenly 
appeared in Rangoon river and landed the forces of the gov- 
ernor-general, consisting of European troops and sepoys, under 
the command of Sir Archibald Campbell. Rangoon fell an 
easy and almost unresisting prey to their attack, and the intelli- 
gence of its fall was the first intimation of the commencement of 
hostilities that reached the court atAva. They were surprised 
but not alarmed. They regarded it as a sudden incursion which 
might easily be repelled, and were only apprehensive that the 
English would escape from the river before the war boats 
could reach them, and chastise them as they deserved. Army 
after army was raised and marched from the capital, with all 
the demonstrations of foolish confidence and absurd conceit 
which belong to the movements of barbarian warriors. One of 
the generals bore with him golden fetters, with which he was to 
chain the governor of India ; and another was commissioned by 
persons connected with the government to bring them home 
some white strangers, to row their boats or to manage their 
horses — so confident were the officers of state of the triumph of 
the Burman arms.* The armies often fought bravely, and 
heroically vindicated the claim of their countrymen to be con- 
sidered superior to the other races of India ; but they were 
defeated in nearly every encounter in which they were engaged. 

The English after the capture of Rangoon were at first greatly 
embarrassed by the incompleteness of their preparations for 
prosecuting the war, and suffered exceedingly from the want of 
suitable provisions, and from diseases incident to the season. 
After the lapse of nearly a year, during which they had been 

*The Bui-mans at this time had never come into collision with the English, 
— they had the most extravagant ideas of their own invincibility, and imag- 
ined that none but inferior races, like the effeminate Hindoos, would ever re- 
main subject to the British power. The king of Burmah is taught to consider 
himself the greatest potentate of the earth. He told Captain Canning, an Eng- 
lish envoy to Ava in 1810, that if the king of Great Britain had but sent for 
his assistance in the war with Napoleon, he would very soon have placed all 
France at his disposal. The humiliation of this absurd national pride may 
have been one of the best results of the Burmese war. 



68 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

often annoyed by Burman valor, the army proceeded up the 
Irrawaddy, and slowly but steadily pushed their advance to- 
wards the imperial capital. They stormed and captured town 
after town along the banks of the river, while Sir Archibald 
Campbell, at every step of their progress, offered proposals for 
peace, which were uniformly rejected with disdain by the Bur- 
man monarch. At Pugan, one of the oldest and most sacred 
cities of the empire, another numerous army was destroyed, and 
scarcely a stronghold now remained between the capital and the 
advancing columns of the triumphant English. The court and 
the city of Ava were in consternation at the approach of an 
enemy that had captured the strongest fortresses, and routed 
and slain the bravest and most renowned generals of the em- 
pire. The king now determined to accept the terms which the 
English general had often proposed, and a treaty of peace was 
concluded at Yandabo, the place at which the army was en- 
camped. By the terms of this treaty the provinces of Arracan, 
Maulmain, Tavoy, and Mergui, together with a part of Marta- 
ban, were to be ceded to the English, and 5,000,000 of rupees* 
w r ere to be paid by the Burmans towards defraying the expenses 
of the war. The treaty was signed on the 24th of February, 
1826, and early in March, nearly two years after the commence- 
ment of hostilities, the English army was withdrawn from the 
advanced posts which it had occupied, and proceeded down the 
river to Rangoon. 

From this brief outline of the public events of the Burman 
war, let us now turn to contemplate the changes which they 
wrought in the fortunes of the mission, and the scenes of suffer- 
ing and peril into which they introduced the missionaries. 

At the time when the sudden approach of the English fleet 
w r as reported at Rangoon, Messrs. Hough and Wade, with their 
families, were the occupants of the mission house at that station. 
In the universal consternation which was created by this intelli- 
gence, the government issued an order that all persons in Ran- 

* More than $2,400,000. 



PERILS OF MESSRS. HOUGH AND WADE. 69 

goon wearing a hat should be immediately arrested. Messrs. 
Hough and Wade were seized, with other European residents 
of the town, and hurried away to the prison, where they were 
chained together and placed in close confinement under the 
charge of armed keepers. On the following morning the fleet 
had arrived just below Rangoon, and the keepers were ordered 
to put them to death so soon as the first gun should be fired 
upon the town. But no sooner did the firing commence than, 
fortunately for the prisoners, the Burman guard, smitten with 
fear, hid themselves in a corner of the prison, and, as the shot 
fell thick and fast around them, they broke open the doors and 
precipitately fled. Soon, however, the firing from the ships 
ceased, and when the prisoners were hoping to hear the ap- 
proach of the English to liberate them, the prison was entered 
by Mtj Burmans, who stripped the wretched captives of most 
of their clothes, bound them tight with cords, and hurried them 
at the point of their spears to a place where criminals were tried 
and executed. Here their bodies were bent forward, and the 
executioner, who, with his spotted face, stood ready at hand, 
was ordered to behead them. 

Mr. Hough, being the only one among them who was entirely 
familiar with the language, alone understood the order, and be- 
sought the yahwoon to stay the execution, and send him on 
board the frigate to entreat the English commander to cease 
firing upon the town. The petition was seconded by the lin- 
guists of the court, and the yahwoon assented, at the same time 
declaring that if the English fired again there should be no 
reprieve. Scarcely had he uttered this threat when several 
shot fell very near the place where they were assembled. The 
whole company, the yahwoon with the rest, fled as rapidly as 
possible, taking care however to drive the prisoners before them, 
the distance of a mile and a half from the town, where they 
halted, and the petition of Mr. Hough was renewed. He was 
at length sent on board the frigate that bore the English flag, 
amid the most fearful threatenings to himself and the others 
in case he should not succeed. The remaining prisoners were 



70 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

confined in a strong building near the great pagoda, where they 
spent the night, loaded with irons, and in the utmost anxiety 
lest both they, and their families in Rangoon, might at any mo- 
ment fall victims to the cruel vengeance of the Burman officers. 
On the following day, the third after their arrest, the English 
landed and liberated them from their painful and perilous con- 
finement. 

During this period of anxiety and alarm, the ladies of the 
mission, deprived of their protectors, though not placed under 
formal arrest, were exposed to the cruel persecutions of their 
enemies. Most of the Burman converts, on the arrest of the 
teachers, fled with their families to the jungle, but Moung Shwa- 
ba remained at the mission house till Mrs. Hough and Mrs. 
Wade were obliged to seek for safety in some less exposed situ- 
ation. They disguised themselves as Burmans, and after being 
twice driven by a Portuguese priest from the doors of the chapel 
and the house in which they sought an asylum, they concealed 
themselves in a bamboo shed, where they remained in safety, 
though constantly sought for by the Burman rabble, and expo- 
sed to the cannon balls which were falling all around them, till 
they were rescued by the English officers and placed under 
the protection of their friends. 

After the taking of Rangoon, the place was completely de- 
serted by the Burmans ; the market was destroyed, and suitable 
provisions could not be obtained at any price. The rainy sea- 
son was just commencing, and a violent fever broke out among 
the troops, and, before they had advanced a step into the 
country, hurried thousands of them into the grave. It also 
attacked Mr. and Mrs. Wade, but in a less malignant form. So 
soon as they had sufficiently recovered from its power, they 
embarked with Mr. and Mrs. Hough for Calcutta, where they 
all remained during the continuance of the war, engaged in the 
study of the language and in the publication of a Burman dic- 
tionary, compiled from the collections of Burman words which 
had been made by Messrs. Judson and Colman, and by Dr. 
Carey and his associates at Serampore. 



ARREST OF MESSRS. JUDSON AND PRICE. 71 

The intelligence of the fall of Rangoon was communicated to 
the imperial court at Ava on the 23d of May, about two weeks 
after it had taken place. All was confusion and excitement at 
the capital. An army of ten thousand men was immediately 
raised and despatched to chastise the invaders and drive them 
from the country, and the government began to inquire into the 
cause of this so sudden arrival of the white strangers. The 
idea that there were spies in the country did not fail to suggest 
itself to the minds of the jealous Burman officers, and three 
English gentlemen, who were residents at the capital, were im- 
mediately placed under arrest. These gentlemen did not con- 
ceal the fact that they were aware of the intended invasion of 
the English, and they were accordingly detained in confinement, 
which was made more rigorous as the hostile army advanced fur- 
ther into the country. Long before the commencement of hostil- 
ities, the missionaries had taken pains to assure the Burman min- 
isters of state that they were Americans, and not subjects of the 
English king, as they were very generally thought to be, in con- 
sequence of the identity of their language and modes of life.* 
But the Burmans either did not believe, or they refused to allow 
the discrimination, but visited upon them the full vengeance of 
their jealous and distrustful spirits. It was ascertained that one 
of the English gentlemen had an account with the missionaries, 
and was in the habit of paying them sums of money. The offi- 
cers, knowing nothing of our system of banking and exchange, 
concluded it could only be for services rendered the English, 
and reported the fact to the king, who, in an angry tone, ordered 
that the two foreign teachers should also be arrested. 

It was on the 8th of June, 1824, that a company of Burmans, 

# Mr, Judson, in a deposition made to Mr. Crawfurd, envoy from the gov- 
ernor general of India to the court of Ava, in 1816, says, " The Burmese are 
of opinion that all white men, except the French, are subjects of the king 
of England. Since the overthrow of the emperor Napoleon, they even be- 
lieve that France has become a part of England's dominions." "The Ameri- 
cans," he adds, "were peculiarly liable to be confounded with the English, 
from speaking the same language." — Crawfurd' '$ Journal of the Embassy, vol. 
2, p. 87. 



72 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

headed by an officer, and attended by a " spotted-faced son of the 
prison,"* came to the mission house, and, in the presence of Mrs. 
Judson, seized her husband and Dr. Price, and after binding 
them tight with cords, drove them away to the court house. 
From this place they w r ere hurried, by order of the king, with- 
out examination, to a loathsome dungeon, known as " the death 
prison," where along with the other foreigners they were con- 
fined, each loaded with three pairs of fetters and fastened to a 
long pole, so as to be incapable of moving. Meanwhile, Mrs. 
Judson was shut up in her house, deprived of her furniture and 
of most of her articles of property, and watched for several days 
by an unfeeling guard, to whose rapacious extortions and brutal 
annoyances she was constantly exposed, without being able to 
make any exertion for the liberation of the prisoners, or the 
mitigation of their cruel sentence. She, however, at length suc- 
ceeded in addressing a petition to the governor of the city, who 
had the prisoners in charge. By a present of one hundred dol- 
lars to his subordinate officer, their condition was somewhat 
meliorated, and by the unwearied perseverance of Mrs. Judson, 
and her affecting appeals to the sympathies of the governor, he 
was induced to grant her occasional permission to go to the 
prison, and at length to build for herself a bamboo shed in the 
prison yard, where she took up her abode, in order that she 
might prepare food for the prisoners, and otherwise minister to 
their necessities. 

At the end of nine months, they were suddenly removed 
from Ava to Amarapura, and thence to a wretched place several 
miles beyond, called Oung-pen-la, where it was arranged that 
they should be put to death in the presence of the pakah-woon, 
as a kind of sacrifice in honor of his taking command of a new 

* In Burmah, the executioners are a class by themselves, hated and shun- 
ned by all others. They are reprieved felons, bound in service to the prisons, 
and marked by a tattooed circle on their cheeks, and often by the name of 
their crime tattooed on their breasts. — Malcom's Travels in South Eastern In- 
dia, vol. 1, p. 212. 

The one here referred to was marked with the Burman word ' Lu-thatf or 
* Man-killer.' 



IMPRISONMENT AT OUXG-PEN-LA. 73 

army of fifty thousand men about to march against the English. 
This sanguinary chief had been raised from a low condition to 
the rank of woongyee ; but in the height of his power, just as 
he was about to march at the head of the army he had mustered, 
he fell into disgrace, was charged with treason, and executed at 
an hour's notice, with the unqualified approbation of all classes 
of people at Ava. His timely execution saved the missionaries 
from the fate which hung over them, and they were left uncared 
for in the miserable cells of Oung-pen-la, till the near approach 
of the English to the capital induced the king to send for Mr. 
Judson, to accompany the embassy that was about to start for 
the English camp, for the purpose of averting the destruction 
that now threatened the Golden City. 

During all this gloomy period of a year and a half Mrs. Judson 
followed them from prison to prison, beneath the darkness of 
night and the burning sun of noon-day, bearing in her arms her 
infant daughter, — the child of sorrow and misfortune, who was 
born after the imprisonment of its father, — procuring for them 
food which Burman policy never supplies to prisoners, and 
perpetually interceding for them with their successive keepers, 
with the governor of the city, with the kinsmen of the monarch, 
and the members of the royal household. More than once the 
queen's brother gave orders that they should be privately put 
to death ; but such was the influence which Mrs. Judson pos- 
sessed over the mind of the governor, that he evaded the order 
each time it was given, and assured her that for her sake he 
would not execute her husband, even though he was obliged 
to execute all the others. And when at last they were to be 
taken from his jurisdiction and driven to the horrid prison-house 
of Oung-pen-la, at the command of the pakah-woon, the old 
man humanely summoned Mrs. Judson from the prison where 
he had permitted her to go and sit with her husband, in order 
that she might be spared the pangs of a separation which he 
had not the power to prevent. Her own pen has traced, in lines 
that will never be forgotten by those who read them, the affect- 
ing history of the dismal days and nights of her husband's 
8 



74 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

captivity. We follow her alike with admiration and the deepest 
sympathy as she takes her solitary way from Ava, at first in a 
boat upon the river and then in a Burman cart, in search of the 
unknown place to which the prisoners have been carried. At 
length, overcome with fatigue, with exposure, and the bitter 
pangs of hope deferred, we see her in a comfortless cabin, pros- 
trate with disease and brought to the very gates of death, — 
while her infant is carried about the village by its father in the 
hours of his occasional liberation, to be nourished by such Bur- 
man mothers as might have compassion on its helpless necessities. 

Such is a single scene from this melancholy record of mis- 
sionary suffering. History has not recorded, poetry itself has 
seldom portrayed, a more affecting exhibition of Christian forti- 
tude, of female heroism, and all the noble and generous qualities 
which constitute the dignity and glory of woman. In the midst 
of sickness and danger, and every calamity which can crush 
the human heart, she presented a character equal to the sternest 
trial, and an address and a fertility of resources which gave her 
an ascendency over the minds of her most cruel enemies, and 
alone saved the missionaries and their fellow captives from the 
terrible doom which constantly awaited them. Day after day 
and amid the lonely hours of night was she employed in concili- 
ating the favor of their keepers, and in devising plans for their 
release, or the alleviation of their captivity. Sometimes, she 
confesses, her thoughts would wander for a brief interval to 
America and the beloved friends of her better days ; " but for 
nearly a year and a half, so entirely engrossed was every thought 
with present scenes and sufferings, that she seldom reflected on 
a single occurrence of her former life, or recollected that she 
had a friend in existence out of Ava." 

The negotiations which had been commenced in the winter 
of 1826 were conducted, from beginning to end, by the aid of 
Mr. Judson and Dr. Price, though they were often interrupted 
or entirely broken off by the caprice and jealousy of the Bur- 
man monarch and his officers. The king placed no confidence 
in the English, and, at several stages of their advance, sent com- 



LIBERATION OF THE MISSIONARIES. 75 

missioners to induce the general, Sir Archibald Campbell, to 
abate his demands and otherwise to alter the terms which he had 
uniformly proposed as the basis of peace. At length, to the 
utmost disappointment and dismay of the Burmans, their last 
army, which had been raised with many protestations of certain 
victory, was totally routed at Pugan, a city endeared to the 
people by its ancient shrines, and deemed impregnable by 
its strong fortifications ; and the defeated general, who fled to 
Ava, was driven in disgrace from the presence of his despotic 
master, and ordered to be immediately put to death. The 
English army, which had steadily advanced almost without re- 
pulse from the capture of Rangoon, was now encamped at 
Yandabo, within forty miles of Ava, and was already threaten- 
ing the capital itself. The king was convinced that he could 
no longer escape the humiliating necessity of paying the entire 
sum which had been demanded, and with ill-disguised mortifi- 
cation he hastened to send forward the first instalment under 
cover of night, in order to conceal as far as possible its payment 
from the people. Mr. Judson and Dr. Price, who had been re- 
peatedly sent to the camp of the English commander to ask a 
modification of the terms which he demanded, were now com- 
pelled to go again with the officers who bore the money. The 
European prisoners were all released by the conditions of the 
treaty, and the cruel incarceration of the missionaries was thus 
brought to a close. So important were the services which they 
had rendered the government in negotiating the peace, that 
they were earnestly invited to remain at the capital, and were 
assured that they should be promoted and become great men. 
Dr. Price was subsequently induced to accept the proposals of 
the king; but Mr. and Mrs. Judson determined without delay 
to leave the place which, before all others on earth, might well 
seem to them the chosen abode of despotism and cruelty, and 
repair to the English camp, to which they had been kindly in- 
vited by Sir Archibald Campbell. 

Mrs. Judson, to whose touching letter to her brother, Dr. 
Elnathan Judson, we are indebted for most of the foregoing 



76 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 



facts and views, thus records her departure from Ava, and her 
obligations to the English commander: "It was on a cool, 
moonlight evening in the month of March, that, with hearts 
filled with gratitude to God, and overflowing with joy at our 
prospects, we passed down the Irrawaddy, surrounded by six 
or eight golden boats, and accompanied by all we had on earth. 
We now, for the first time for more than a year and a half, felt 
that we were free, and no longer subject to the oppressive yoke 
of the Burmese. And with what sensations of delight, on the 
next morning, did I behold the masts of the steamboat, — the 
sure presage of being within the bounds of civilized life ! . . . 
We feel that our obligations to General Campbell can never be 
cancelled. Our final release from Ava, and our recovering all 
the property that had there been taken, were owing entirely to his 
efforts. His subsequent ^hospitality and kind attention to the 
accommodations for our passage to Rangoon have left an indeli- 
ble impression on our minds, and can never be forgotten." 

In the long absence of the missionaries the little flock of dis- 
ciples at Rangoon had become widely scattered, as sheep with- 
out a shepherd. Many had been driven by the tumults of the 
times far into the jungles of the interior; some had died; 
others met the missionaries as they descended the river, over- 
joyed at their deliverance from captivity, and prepared to follow 
them whithersoever they should go. Moung Shwa-ba, faithful 
through every adversity, alone dwelt at the mission house, await- 
ing the return of the teachers. On their arrival at Rangoon, 
Mr. Judson accepted the invitation of Mr. Crawfurd, the com- 
missioner of Lord Amherst, at that time governor-general of 
India, to accompany him on a tour of observation to several of 
the districts which, by the recent treaty, had been ceded to the 
English government. They proceeded up the Sal wen, or 
Martaban river, and at a point on the eastern bank, not far 
from its mouth, they fixed on the site for a town, which was 
designed to be henceforth the capital of the English posses- 
sions in Burmah. The spot received the name of Amherst, in 
honor of the governor-general, and was set apart as the future 






MR. JUDSON JOINS THE EMBASSY TO AVA. 77 

seat of a civilized and Christian government, with appropriate 
ceremonies, and with religious services which were conducted 
by Mr. Judson. Here he determined to remove his family, and 
to plant a new missionary station, where, beneath the broad 
protection of the British flag, he and his coadjutors in the mis- 
sion might preach the gospel and labor for the salvation of men, 
unharmed by Burman power. 

No sooner, however, had the mission become fairly established 
at Amherst, than Mr. Judson was earnestly solicited to accom- 
pany, as translator, the embassy which Mr. Crawfurd was di- 
rected to undertake to the court of Ava, for the purpose of ne- 
gotiating a commercial treaty with the government. He at first 
declined the appointment, birt on being assured by the commis- 
sioner that he would use his utmost endeavors to have inserted in 
the treaty a clause for securing religious toleration — the great 
object for which he had toiled so long — he at length decided to 
accept the office and join the embassy, which it was thought 
would require an absence of only four or five months from 
the mission. Leaving Mrs. Judson and her infant daughter 
quietly settled in the house of the civil superintendent at Am- 
herst, he sailed for Rangoon on the 5th of July, and after 
considerable delay proceeded again up the Irrawaddy to the 
Burman capital. The manner in which the embassy was re- 
ceived at Ava, and the character of the negotiations, all singu- 
larly illustrative of oriental life, together with an account of the 
services of Mr. Judson, have been fully set forth in the jour- 
nal of the embassy by the excellent commissioner, Mr. Crawfurd. 
The Burman king, however, refused to grant any legal tolera- 
tion to the religion of the strangers, choosing to confine himself, 
in all the stipulations of the treaty, exclusively to the interests 
and relations of commerce. The hope which had alone induced 
Mr. Judson to accompany the embassy was thus entirely frus- 
trated, and the disappointment was made the more painful by the 
tedious delays which protracted his absence from the mission 
far beyond his original anticipations. 

It was while thus detained at Ava that he received the sad 
8* 



78 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

tidings of the death of Mrs. Judson. A remittent fever had 
settled on her constitution, already enfeebled by suffering and 
disease, and she died on the 24th of October, 1826, amid the 
universal sorrow alike of the English residents at Amherst and 
of the native Christians who had gathered around her at her 
new home. So soon as he could release himself from his en- 
gagements with the embassy, Mr. Judson returned to Rangoon 
and hastened to Amherst, that he might again clasp in his em- 
brace his now motherless babe, and glean some tidings of the 
latest moments of his departed wife. He arrived at his desolate 
home on the 24th of January, and found his daughter already 
fading with the disease that soon hurried her away to rest with 
her mother. From the attendant physician he learned all that 
could be known of Mrs. Judson's sickness, and received the as- 
surance that she was faithfully cared for by those who watched 
around her bed. The native Christians also related to him her 
parting conversations, and the words of love and piety which she 
directed them to repeat to the absent teacher. Mr. and Mrs. 
Wade had already arrived at Amherst, and were continuing the 
missionary school which Mrs. Judson had commenced; but the 
mission was still shrouded in gloom, and its now solitary foun- 
der> though inured to privation and suffering, was overwhelmed 
with affliction. Humanity knows no keener anguish than that 
of blighted and broken affections ; and when Mr. Judson again 
settled at Amherst, amid the memorials of ruined hopes and 
joys, it is not strange that he entered with diminished interest 
upon the work of the mission. " The life which made his own 
life pleasant was at an end, and the gates of death seemed 
closed upon his earthly prospects." 

Mrs. Judson was buried at Amherst, and beside her grave 
sleeps her infant daughter, who survived her but a few weeks. 
The spot is marked by an appropriate though humble memorial, 
on which is inscribed the affecting story of those who sleep be- 
neath. It will be rendered forever sacred to Christians in every 
land by the memory of one in whom genius and heroism and 
piety were combined with the highest graces both of person 
and of character. 



SEAT OF THE BOARD ESTABLISHED AT BOSTON. 79 



CHAPTER IX. 

Seat of the Board established at Boston. — Rev. Dr. Stanghton. — American 
Sympathy for the Missionaries. — Condition of the Mission. — Death of Dr. 
Price. — Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Boardman. — Their settlement at Maul- 
main. — Removal of the Mission to Maulmain. — Labors of the Missiona- 
ries. — Mr. and Mrs. Boardman remove to Tavoy. — Condition of the city. 
— They become acquainted with the Karens. — Character of the Karen Race. 

During the period embraced in the foregoing chapter, many 
important changes had taken place in the domestic condition 
of the Board of Managers of the Convention in the United 
States, a few of which require a passing notice on account 
of their connection with subsequent events. The seat of the 
business transactions of the Board, with the residence of its ex- 
ecutive officers, was at first at Philadelphia, but after the estab- 
lishment of the Columbian College at Washington it was remov- 
ed to that city, in order to allow the Eev. Dr. Stanghton to hold 
the office of President of the College, and at the same time per- 
form his duties as Corresponding Secretary of the Board. 
Many inconveniences, however, were experienced, especially in 
the management of the foreign missions, in consequence of 
the remoteness of Washington from the principal sea-ports of 
the country. At the triennial meeting of the Convention in 
1823, the charter which had been previously granted by the 
legislature of Pennsylvania was formally adopted, and what 
was before only a voluntary association became a corporate 
body recognized by the laws of the land. In the following 
year the Board, impressed with the embarrassments which at- 
tended its present location and modes of transacting business, 
resolved to transfer the management of the Burman Mission to 
the care of an executive committee at Boston; and in 1826 
Dr. Staughton resigned the office of secretary, and the seat of 
the entire operations of the Board was fixed at that city. At 



80 MISSIONS IN BUfiMAH. 

the same time Rev. Lucius Bolles, d. d. was appointed Corres- 
ponding Secretary in the place of Dr. Staughton, and Hon. 
Heman Lincoln was appointed Treasurer. 

The resignation of Rev. Dr. Staughton withdrew from the 
immediate management of the missions one of their earliest and 
most efficient friends. Born in England, and there ordained 
to the ministry of the gospel, he had been present at Kettering 
in 1792, at the celebrated meeting of Baptist ministers, at which 
was formed the " Society for Propagating the Gospel among 
the Heathen," and his name stands among the earliest of those 
who signed its constitution and contributed to its support. In 
the fraternal intercourse of his native land he -breathed the spirit 
which then animated the bosoms of Carey and Fuller, of Ry- 
land and Pearce; and on coming to America he still cherished 
the same generous and philanthropic views. He had participated 
in the organization of the General Convention, and from its com- 
mencement, in 1814, he had held the office of corresponding 
secretary, in which, with a discreet and conciliatory spirit, he 
had conducted the correspondence, shaped the counsels, and 
superintended the concerns of the Board, while, with an elo- 
quence that lent a charm to every subject on which he spoke, 
he had advocated the claims of the missions among the churches 
of every portion of the country. During almost the entire 
period of his official connection with the Board, his services 
were wholly gratuitous, and though often extending far beyond 
the demands of official duty, they were performed with a 
fidelity and self-sacrifice which have never been surpassed. 
The early character of our missionary organization, and the 
rapidity with which it conquered the prejudices and secured 
the increasing cooperation of individuals and churches in every 
State of the Union, are in a great degree to be ascribed to the 
labor, the zeal, and the eloquence of this first corresponding 
secretary of the Convention. 

For more than two years the missionaries who had remained 
in Burmah were cut off from all communication with their breth- 
ren in America, or indeed with every part of the civilized world, 



AMERICAN SYMPATHY FOR THE MISSIONARIES. 81 

It was a period of the utmost anxiety and suspense to the friends 
of the mission both in Europe and America. Month after 
month passed slowly away, but brought no tidings of their fate, 
and nothing but a strong faith in the protecting providence of 
God prevented the members of the Board from abandoning all 
hope of their safety. And when at length the clouds of war 
were lifted from the horizon, and the news of their deliverance 
from captivity was received in America, it produced a thrill of 
gratitude and joy in all Christian hearts. The story of their 
privations and sufferings was repeated from the pulpit and read 
by the fireside, every where exciting the deepest sympathy. 
The duty of reinforcing a missionary band whose members had 
suffered so much from heathen cruelty was strongly felt among 
all the churches, and a desire to engage in the sacred work 
was enkindled in the minds of several young men who were 
preparing for the ministry of the gospel. Some of these soon 
afterwards offered themselves to the Board and were appointed 
missionaries. The enterprise began to assume a new aspect ; 
new fields of missionary exertion were opened, and new facilities 
were presented for preaching the gospel among the people of 
Burmah. 

By the terms of the treaty which had been ratified between 
the English government and the Burman, a considerable territo- 
ry was ceded to the English as an indemnity for the expenses 
of the war. As the Burman monarch had refused to add to the 
stipulations of the treaty any guaranty for the toleration of 
Christianity among his own subjects, it was decided by the mis- 
sionaries to confine their labors for the present at least, to the 
districts which had been ceded to the English. Accordingly 
Mr. and Mrs. Wade had already established themselves at Am- 
herst, where they Avere now joined by Mr. Judson. Dr. Price, 
who had accepted the proposal of the king to remain in his service 
as a physician, returned to Ava, where he established a school 
for the education of the sons of several families connected with 
the court. He gathered around him a large number of the young 
men of rank in the capital, and began to teach them the rudi- 



82 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

merits of science, and at the same time to impart to them the 
truths of religion. He also lectured in public before the high- 
est officers of the government on the leading principles of 
astronomy, and of such other sciences as would have a tendency 
gradually to undermine their faith in the dogmas of Buddhism ; 
for these are as contradictory to the principles of true science 
as they are to the teachings of Christianity. His wide medi- 
cal reputation and his connection with the court afforded oppor- 
tunities for setting forth religious truth such as an ordinary 
missionary could not have, and high hopes were entertained of 
the results of his labors. But ere he had realized any of his 
noble plans he fell a victim to a pulmonary consumption, and 
died at his post at Ava in February, 1828. 

Early in 1827, Mr. and Mrs. Boardman joined the mission- 
aries at Amherst. They had received their appointment and 
sailed from the United States two years before, but in conse- 
quence of the troubled condition of Burman affairs had re- 
mained in Calcutta, where they had been engaged in the study 
of the language and in other preparations for their work as mis- 
sionaries. Amherst, which had been originally selected as the 
seat of the English government in Burmah, proved less conven- 
ient than was anticipated, and Sir Archibald Campbell soon 
decided to remove the head-quarters of the army to Maulmain, 
a considerable town on the east bank of the Sal wen river, about 
twenty-five miles from its mouth. The former capital was 
already beginning to decline, a large part of the population hav- 
ing moved away with the troops, and it was decided by the mis- 
sionaries that Mr. Boardman should commence his labors at 
Maulmain, while Mr. and Mrs. Wade were to remain at Amherst, 
and Mr. Judson was to divide his attention between the two 
stations, as their respective interests might require. The Eng- 
lish governor readily presented Mr. Boardman with a lot 
of land about a mile from the military cantonment, sufficiently 
large for the accommodation of the mission, on which he erect- 
ed a small bamboo cottage, and began the work of preaching to 
the natives. The hopes which this excellent missionary had 



MR. BOARDMAN AT MAUL MAIN. 85 

cherished for many years seemed now to be fully realized. He 
was dwelling in his own cottage, with his family around him, 
and making known the truths of the gospel to the ignorant chil- 
dren of a dark and cruel idolatry. His dwelling stood in a se- 
cluded though beautiful spot on the bank of the river, directly 
opposite the town of Martaban, now comparatively deserted and 
the resort of banditti and marauders who prowled through the 
neighboring villages and pillaged the houses of the inhabitants. 

Mr. and Mrs. Boardman were scarcely settled in their new 
home, when their house was visited in the night by a party of 
these robbers. Their trunks were broken open and rifled of 
their contents, and nearly every thing valuable in their posses- 
sion was carried away. The thin walls of matting within which 
they slept could afford no protection from the attacks either of 
robbers or of wild beasts, and they were often startled from their 
slumbers by the loud tumult of marauders seeking for plunder, 
or the fierce growl of the tiger that seemed just ready to spring 
into their very room. After the visit of the robbers, Sir Arch- 
ibald Campbell sent them two sepoys to guard their premises, 
and as new houses constantly sprang up around them, they 
henceforth dwelt in comparative security. They were encour- 
aged by the visits of many respectable natives who came, from 
one motive or another, to inquire concerning the new religion. 
In addition to his holding service on the Sabbath and conversing 
as well as he was able with the visiters who came to his house, 
Mr. Boardman opened a school for boys and Mrs. Boardman one 
for girls ; and to these they daily gave a portion of their atten- 
tion. Most of the pupils in both of the schools were children 
of the native Christians, some of whom had already learned 
the leading facts of Scripture history from the teachings of their 
parents. The schools however were intended to embrace such 
others as could be induced to join them, and were regarded by 
the missionaries as important means of improving the religious 
condition of the people. 

In November, 1827, the population of Amherst had become 
so far reduced that the missionaries who were stationed there 
9 



86 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

determined on removing to Maulmain, which, though but two 
years since an unoccupied jungle, was already the chief city of 
the English provinces, and now numbered a population of nearly 
twenty thousand. Many of the Christian families accompanied 
them, and the school of Mrs. Wade was united with that of Mrs. 
Boardman at Maulmain, and the two were placed under the 
common charge of both these ladies, and were attended with the 
most gratifying success. Two zayats were soon after erected, 
one for Mr. Wade, on the public road about half a mile south, 
the other for Mr. Judson, in a populous part of the city about 
two miles and a half north of the mission house. There the 
two missionaries would sit through the livelong day, engaged in 
such studies as they were able to prosecute, but especially con- 
versing upon the doctrines of Christianity with the visiters who 
soon came to them in great numbers. To these two places of 
religious teaching it was soon determined to add a third, which 
should be a kind of reading zayat, to which those who could 
not read the Burman Scriptures might resort and hear them 
read. To this zayat Moung Shwa-ba and Moung Ing, two of 
the early converts at Rangoon, were assigned, and there they 
alternately read the sacred Scriptures to all who would hear. 

From the reports of the missionaries at this period, their la- 
bors appear to have been arranged in several distinct classes, 
each of which had a character and a sphere of its own. The 
first and most important of these was the public worship of the 
Sabbath. This was attended by the members of the mission, the 
scholars, the native converts and inquirers, and such other per- 
sons as might come in. The assembly would vary from twenty 
to seventy or more. The second was the daily evening wor- 
ship at the mission house. At this twenty persons were usually 
present, being principally the scholars and the native Christians 
who lived around the enclosure. After worship, one of the 
missionaries would spend the remainder of the evening in re- 
ligious conversation with the men who chose to remain, while 
the women would repair to the room of Mrs. Wade, to be in- 
structed by her. The third was the schools of Mr. Boardman 



STATION AT TAVOY. 87 

for boys, and of Mrs. Boardman and Mrs. Wade for girls. The 
fourth was attendance at the zayats which had been estab- 
lished, and to which the people were in the habit of daily 
resorting in great numbers, to converse with the missionaries, 
or to hear the Scriptures read by the native assistants. 

The permanent collection of so many of the missionaries at a 
single station was not approved by the Board, or deemed de- 
sirable by the missionaries themselves. In accordance there- 
fore with instructions received from the Corresponding Secre- 
tary, it was decided that Mr. and Mrs. Boardman should re- 
move to Tavoy, the chief town of the province of Tavoy. It 
is situated on a river of the same name, about thirty-five miles 
from the sea, and one hundred and fifty miles south of Maul- 
main, and had at this time a population of upwards of nine 
thousand, of whom six thousand were Burmans. 

The city itself is one of the leading strongholds of the reli- 
gion of Gaudama, and when Mr. Boardman took up his abode 
there in April, 1828, it was the residence of two hundred 
priests. Temples and shrines dedicated to heathen worship 
arose in every part of the city, and as the missionary wandered 
through its regular and well-arranged streets in search of a 
site whereon to build a zayat and a mission house, he could 
find scarcely a spot that was not crowded with emblems of 
idolatry. The largest pagoda of the city is about fifty feet in. 
diameter and one hundred and fifty feet in height ; around it 
are others of smaller dimensions, which, with the great pagoda, 
are all gilt from the summit to the base, and surmounted with 
an umbrella of iron, which is also loaded with gilding. In and 
around the enclosure which contains these numerous pagodas and 
shrines, stands an extensive and thickly-set grove of banyan 
and other sacred trees, intersected with paved foot-paths which 
lead to the various spots consecrated by the legends of religion. 
Every object that the eye rests upon is covered with the marks 
of idolatry, — with inscriptions and devices, the emblems of the 
fabled deity whom the city worships. 

On the days which are set apart for religious observances 



88 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the grove is crowded with Burmans, who perform the rites of 
their superstition beneath the solemn shade of the banyan, while 
the women festoon its branching trunks with lilies and flowers 
of every hue, which they bring as offerings to propitiate the 
divinity. Blending with the picturesque and sombre beauty of 
the scene is heard the sound of innumerable bells, which are 
hung around the spires of the larger pagodas, and which, when 
moved by the slightest breeze, ring out their thousand varying 
chimes, and seem to summon from afar the people of the vales 
and the mountains to the observances of their ancient supersti- 
tion. Tavoy alone contains nearly a thousand pagodas, besides 
great numbers which crown the hill-tops and eminences in the 
surrounding country. 

Thus given to idolatry, even beyond most other portions of 
the empire, was the ancient city to which Mr. Boarclman re- 
moved, and wdiere he now began to make known for the first 
time the truths of Christianity. He was kindly received and 
hospitably entertained by Major Burney, the Civil Superinten- 
dent of the district, and, in ten days after his arrival, he had 
taken a house in the city and was receiving visits from the in- 
habitants. Early in July the zayat was completed, and he 
commenced his labors in it with the most devoted zeal, and in 
the full faith of the ultimate triumph of the doctrines he taught. 
He looked out upon the strange magnificence of shrines and 
temples that lay around him, — upon the monuments which had 
perpetuated for many ages this idolatrous worship, — upon the 
priests who taught it and the countless devotees who practiced 
it ; and as he prepared to strike the first blow at the hoary super- 
stition which they all enshrined, he felt to the full the sublimity 
and greatness of the undertaking- He stood alone, the herald 
of truth, before this mighty array of ancient error, but he trusted 
implicitly in the promises of revelation, and felt assured that 
the day was at hand when all this empty adoration of Gaudama 
would give place to the worship of the living God. 

The priests of the city at first appeared to regard with indif- 
ference, if not with favor, his humble and unostentatious en- 



THE KARENS. 89 

deavors to instruct the people. He soon, however, learned that 
they were arraying themselves against him, and cautioning those 
within the reach of their influence not to listen to his teachings, 
and on one occasion, soon after he opened the zayat, a priest, 
who was passing by while he was talking with an intelligent 
Burman, stopped to reprimand the affrighted man for listening 
to his conversation. He was also sometimes visited by persons 
of the higher classes in Tavoy, who in the presence of the 
others would attempt with great subtlety to vindicate the doc- 
trines of Gaudama, and blame the missionary for condemning 
them before he had read all the sacred books in which they are 
explained. But notwithstanding all these endeavors to frustrate 
his labors, they did not fail to secure the attention and excite the 
interest of the people, and many daily came to listen to his con- 
versation, and to express to him the cravings, which even in 
their darkened natures had not been wholly destroyed, for a 
more satisfying faith than that which they had received. Two 
of these soon avowed their adoption of Christianity, and, in the 
course of the first summer of Mr. Boardman's residence at 
Tavoy, were baptized and constituted the germ of a new Chris- 
tian church. 

When Mr. Boardman removed to Tavoy, there was living in 
his family a man of middle age who had been a slave, but 
whose freedom had been purchased by the missionaries. When 
he left Maulmain he was already a convert to Christianity, and 
was baptized soon after he came to Tavoy. His name was 
Ko Thah-byu, one of the race of Karens ; and he afterwards 
for many years preached the gospel with singular zeal and suc- 
cess to his despised and oppressed countrymen. His conver- 
sion to Christianity was the means of attracting the attention 
of the missionaries to the race to which he belonged, and of 
founding a mission which, in point of interest and success, has 
scarcely been equalled by any other of modern times. 

This singular people are widely scattered over the forests 
and mountains of Burmah and Siam, and even of some parts of 
China, and are called Karians, or Karens, a term in the language 



90 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

of the country, meaning wild men. They are entirely distinct 
from the Burmans, by whom they are regarded as inferiors or 
slaves, and though their origin cannot be clearly traced, jet, 
from their features and language, they have been thought by 
the missionaries to belong to the Caucasian variety of the hu- 
man species. They have adopted many of the customs and 
modes of life of the Burmans, but though inferior both in phys- 
ical and intellectual strength, they are in general more indus- 
trious, and less addicted to the vices of barbarian tribes. Their 
condition however is a degraded one, and, addicted as they are 
to intemperance, their character and habits of life in their na- 
tive rudeness are often disgusting in the extreme. 

They are every where cruelly oppressed by the Burmans 
among whom they dwell ; being compelled to cultivate the land, 
to pay large tributes, and to perform every kind of servile la- 
bor. Hence they lead a wandering life, and usually plant their 
temporary villages in remote and inaccessible regions in order 
to avoid the incursions of their- oppressors, who often hunt 
them out to kidnap and enslave them. 

The Karens present the extraordinary phenomenon of a peo- 
ple without any form of religion or established priesthood, yet 
believing in the existence of God and in a future state of rewards 
and punishments, and cherishing a set of traditions of unusual 
purity and interest, which they transmit from age to age in the 
poetic legends of their race. These traditions contain many 
doctrines strikingly similar to the truths of Scripture, which in 
reality form the germs of a religion far superior in its influence 
upon their moral natures, to that of their haughty oppressors. 
The absence of a priesthood and of all the rites of superstition 
undoubtedly renders them more immediately accessible to the 
truths of the gospel, while the sanctions of virtue, the reverence 
for the unseen deity and the anticipations of a future life which 
are inculcated in their legends, tend to quicken and refine, to an 
unusual degree, their sensibility to moral truth. Blended with 
the traditions which they cherish are some singular prophecies, 
relating to their future elevation as a people, and asserting that 



LABORS OF KO THAH-BYU. 91 

they are not always to be thus degraded, that a brighter day is 
at length to dawn upon their race, and that white strangers from 
across the sea would come to teach them " the words of God," 
and raise them from their degradation. Hence, when the mis- 
sionaries first became known to them, they evinced the greatest 
delight and welcomed them with the utmost enthusiasm. They 
believed that the mysterious predictions of the " elders " of a 
former generation were about to be fulfilled, and that the Karens 
were now to be restored to a happiness and a dignity which 
they had lost for ages. Singular as these predictions appear, we 
shall perceive in the subsequent part of this narrative how im- 
portant was the influence which they exerted over the character 
of this simple people, and to how great an extent they were 
literally fulfilled by the arrival and the labors of the mission- 
aries.* 



CHAPTER X. 



Labors of Ko Thah-byu. — Superstitions of the Karens. — Their interest in 
Christianity. — Mr. Boardman visits their Villages. — His agency in estab- 
lishing Schools. — Insurrection in Tavoy. — Interruption of the Mission. — 
Increasing interest of the Karens. — Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Mason at Tavoy. 
— Ill health of Mr. Boardman. — His last Visit to the Karens. — His Death. 

Mr. Boardman soon after his settlement at Tavoy became 
acquainted with several of the Karens in the city, who were 
generally first brought to him by the disciple Ko Thah-byu — a 
person who early evinced the most active zeal in the service of 
the mission, and especially in enlisting the interests of his own 
countrymen in the new religion. The intelligence that a white 
teacher from across the sea had arrived at Tavoy was widely 
circulated through the villages of the interior, and soon Karens 

* Specimens of Karen traditions and prophecies have often been published 
by the missionaries. Many are contained in Mr. Mason's Life of Ko Thah-byu. 



92 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

from the jungle, distant several days' journey from the city, were 
seen at the mission house, listening with curious interest to the 
conversations of the missionary. He found them possessed of 
a delicate sensibility and a spirit unusually teachable, and the 
interest which they manifested in religious truth being so much 
greater than that of the Burmans, soon made them the principal 
objects of his attention and labor. 

Among the illustrations of their singular susceptibility of mor- 
al impressions, Mr. Boardman relates an account of a book which 
had been left at one of their villages twelve years before, by 
a travelling Mussulman, who told them it was sacred, and 
commanded them to worship it. The person to whose charge it 
was delivered, though ignorant of its contents, wrapped it in 
folds of muslin and enclosed it in a case, or basket, made of 
reeds covered over with pitch. It was henceforth a deified book, 
and an object of religious veneration. The keeper of it became 
a kind of sorcerer, and he and all the people of his village firmly 
believed that a teacher would at length come and explain the 
contents of the mysterious volume. "When the arrival of Mr. 
Boardman was reported in the village, the guardian of the dei- 
fied book came with a chief of the tribe to the mission house, to 
obtain his opinion respecting its character. The missionary, af- 
ter hearing their story and speaking to them of the nature of 
Christianity, proposed that they should return to their village 
and bring him the book, that he might judge of its contents. 
Accordingly, after several days, the sorcerer returned, attended 
by a numerous train and bringing with him the venerated vol- 
ume. All seemed to anticipate Mr. Boardman's opinion as deci- 
sive of its character, and were wrought to a high pitch of expec* 
tation of its announcement. The sorcerer, at his request, stood 
before him, with the basket containing the mysterious treasure 
at his feet. He carefully unrolled the muslin and took from 
its folds " an old, tattered, worn-out volume " which, creeping 
forward, he reverently presented to the missionary. It proved 
to be no other than the " Book of Common Prayer and the 
Psalms," of an edition printed in Oxford. " It is a good book," 



MR. BOARDMAN VISITS THE KAREN VILLAGES. 93 

said Mr. Boardman ; " it teaches that there is a God in Heaven, 
whom alone we should worship. You have been ignorantly wor- 
shipping this book ; that is not good. I will teach you to worship 
the God whom the book reveals. Every Karen countenance was 
alternately lighted up with smiles of joy and cast down with in- 
ward convictions of having erred in worshipping a book instead 
of the God whom it reveals. I took the book of psalms in Burman 
and read such passages as seemed appropriate, and having given 
a brief and easy explanation, engaged in prayer. They stayed 
two days, and discovered considerable interest in the instructions 
given them." The aged sorcerer, on hearing Mr. Boardman's 
decision respecting the book, seemed readily to perceive that his 
office was at an end, and at the suggestion of one of the native 
Christians, he disrobed himself of the fantastical dress which he 
had been accustomed to wear, and gave up the heavy cudgel, or 
wand, which for twelve years he had borne as the badge of his 
spiritual authority. 

Though Mr. Boardman henceforth directed his principal 
efforts to the Karens, he did not abandon his labors among the 
Burmans. Indeed they were inseparably united, for in nearly 
every assembly that he met, Burmans and Karens were mingled 
together, and as the Karens at this time had no written language 
his instructions were of necessity imparted in the Burman, with 
which they seem to have been generally quite familiar. 

At the beginning of the year 1821 Mr. Boardman had been 
often visited by Karens from the interior, who stated to him 
that their people had heard of his arrival, and were desirous of 
being taught by him. They had come long journeys from the 
neighboring province of Mergui and from settlements far to the 
east, and all invited him to visit them in their own jungle and 
instruct them in the ways of God. He decided to comply with 
their repeated requests, and accordingly on the 5th of February 
he commenced a journey to some of the less remote of the Karen 
villages. 

The little caravan, in addition to Mr. Boardman, consisted of 
Ko Thah-byu, and another Christian Karen, two of the elder 



94 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

boys of the school, and a native of Malabar, who was employed 
as a servant and cook. They directed their course first to the 
village of Tshick-koo, the residence of the sorcerer and the chief 
Moung So, who had visited the mission house at Tavoy. Their 
journey lay through a country studded all over with the monu- 
ments of idolatry. Every cliff and peak along the mountains 
which they passed, seemed crowned with a pagoda. At length, 
on the third day, they reached the village to which they had 
been invited. The villagers, who had been expecting them, 
testified their joy on seeing the white teacher and exclaimed, 
" Ah ! you have come at last ; we have long been wishing to see 
you." The travellers were supplied by the simple natives with 
fowls, fish and rice, and entertained with the utmost hospitality 
which the village could furnish. 

Mr. Boarduian found here a zayat which had been put up in 
anticipation of his arrival, large enough to contain the whole 
population of the village, numbering in all not more than sixty 
or seventy persons. In the evening a company of about thirty 
assembled, to whom he preached some of the simplest truths of 
the gospel, his words being interpreted by Ko Thah-byu, so that 
those present who were ignorant of Burman might understand 
his teachings. They listened attentively and many of them re- 
mained the whole night in the zayat with the missionary. On 
the following day they came together in still larger numbers, of 
both sexes and all ages, bringing presents to the teacher and his 
companions. After they had heard him explain the salvation 
which is offered in the gospel, five of them at the close of the 
day requested him to baptize them, that they might also be disci- 
ples of Christ. One of them was the old sorcerer who had been 
the keeper of the sacred book, another was a disciple and asso- 
ciate of his, while the remaining three were persons who had 
often been at Tavoy and had requested baptism several months 
before. He decided to defer the baptism of all of them for the 
present, till he should have opportunity to instruct them more 
fully and judge more accurately respecting the change which 
they professed to have experienced. He explained to them the 



ESTABLISHMENT OF SCHOOLS AMONG THE KARENS. 95 

ten commandments, and as they were without the division of 
time into weeks, he was pleased to observe the arrangements 
which they devised with much care, in order to recollect the 
return of the Sabbath day. 

On his return, he stopped at other villages to which he was 
invited by the inhabitants, by whom he was invariably received 
with the greatest hospitality and respect. In one of these vil- 
lages two men, who had often heard the gospel from Ko Thah- 
byu, made a request for Christian baptism. He however ad- 
vised them to wait still longer in learning the religion of Christ. 
After an absence of nine or ten days, which he passed in these 
visits to the villages of the Karens, Mr. Boardman returned 
to Tavoy more than ever interested in the character of these 
singular people, and full of hope and encouragement respecting 
their early conversion to Christianity He had formed a large 
and comprehensive plan of missionary operations, embracing 
both schools and a system of itinerant preaching among the vil- 
lages of the province, which he had already submitted to the 
consideration of the Board of Managers and of the Conven- 
tion. The little church which he had founded at Tavoy, was 
receiving frequent accessions, and though not without occasional 
instances of apostasy, was yet in a highly prosperous condition, 
while from every part of the surrounding jungle there came 
the voice of inquiry for books that would make known the true 
God, and for visits from the teacher to tell the people of the 
new religion. 

Mr. Boardman attached great importance to Christian schools 
as a part of the agency of the mission. The schools for boys 
and for girls which had been established by himself and Mrs. 
Boardman, had been productive of the most beneficial results. 
The school for girls at the close of a year from its establish- 
ment contained twenty-one scholars, while that for boys had a 
number still larger, of whom the five eldest had been bap- 
tized and admitted to the church. Mr. Boardman had also 
made many efforts to have schools established throughout the 
city, but he encountered innumerable obstacles, and at the end 



96 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

of three months, had been able to establish but one, the teacher 
of which he was allowed to employ at the expense of the Eng- 
lish government. During the second summer of his residence 
at Tavoy, while the external condition of the mission was the 
most encouraging, he was visited with a series of personal and 
domestic afflictions, which proved not only a severe trial of his 
spirit, but a serious detriment to the interests of the mission. 
His own health had already begun to give alarming symptoms 
of decline ; that of Mrs. Boardman had become seriously im- 
paired ; their eldest born, a daughter of tender years, had sud- 
denly fallen sick and died, and their only remaining child was 
prostrated by disease and apparently destined soon to sleep 
with his sister in the grave. But though encountering many 
outward discouragements and oppressed with the poignant sor- 
row of recent bereavement, these indefatigable missionaries 
still labored on in the school and at the zayat ; wherever they 
met the ignorant idolaters of Tavoy, there they sought to do 
them good and lead them in the way of life. 

On the 9th of August, 1829, the missionaries were roused 
from their slumbers at an early hour, by a knocking at their 
doors and windows, and their native friends crying to them, 
" Teacher ! Teacher ! Tavoy rebels." On inquiry they found that 
the province had risen in insurrection against the English gov- 
ernment, and that large companies of natives had attacked 
the powder magazine, the dwelling of one of the principal offi- 
cers and the prison. The utmost alarm existed in the city, 
which was garrisoned only by a small party of sepoys with a 
few English officers to command them. Their own premises 
were surrounded by bands of the insurgents, and the balls 
which they fired upon the city whistled above their heads, and 
occasionally passed through their house. The sepoys were at 
length after a severe conflict able to drive the rebels from the 
city gates, but it was only to render the situation of the mis- 
sionaries still more perilous ; for their house was now directly 
between the two parties and in the range of the fire of each, 
and their enclosures seemed destined to be the battle-ground of 



INSURRECTION IN TAVOY. 97 

the insurrection. Early in the day, they were glad to avail 
themselves of the invitation which had been sent them by Mrs. 
Burney, the wife of the civil superintendent, who was himself 
absent from home, to take refuge in the government house ; they 
had been here however but a short time, when it was determined 
to evacuate the town and retire to a building at the quay on the 
margin of the river. Here, in a wooden building of only six 
rooms, were crowded together for several days the European res- 
idents, the sepoys, and two or three hundred women and children 
of Portuguese and others, who looked to the English for pro- 
tection. Several hundred barrels of powder were standing in 
the rooms around them, and on the outside were raging the tu- 
multuous hosts of the insurgents, elated with their possession of 
the town and threatening destruction to the English and their 
adherents. At length, on the morning of the 13th of August, 
Major Burney arrived at Tavoy in the steamer Diana, and as it 
was determined to send the vessel immediately to Maulmain for 
reinforcements, Mrs. Boardman and her family embarked with 
Mrs. Burney, leaving Mr. Boardman with the superintendent to 
render such service as might be in his power, and also to look 
after the articles of property belonging to the mission house, 
which had been scattered and broken to pieces by the infuri- 
ated natives. 

On the loth two successive attacks were made upon the town 
under the direction of Major Burney, which resulted in the en- 
tire repulse of the insurgents, and the capture of several of their 
leaders. When quiet was restored Mr. Boardman went into the 
town, but found many parts of it in ruins. The mission house 
was cut to pieces by the rebels, and every thing which had been 
left behind by the mission family in their hurried flight had been 
carried away or destroyed, and the premises and the adjacent 
fields and roads were strown with the fragments of books and 
furniture which had been wantonly ruined. He spent several 
days in gathering together the relics which he found, and in re- 
pairing the mission hquse ; and then, taking with him such of 
the scholars as were desirous of going, he joined Mrs. Board- 
10 



98 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

man at Maulmain. The affairs of Tavoy were soon settled, 
and the province made quiet beneath the sway of the English. 
The mission house having been rebuilt, and other arrangements 
for recommencing the mission completed, the missionaries with 
their family and scholars returned to Tavoy on the 6th of Oc- 
tober, and established themselves again at their familiar post 
of labor. 

The tumults of the rebellion had scattered the little band 
of Karen disciples, and broken up the schools ; but so soon as 
it was known that Mr. Boardman had returned, the Karens 
came back from the jungles to which they had fled, testifying 
their joy at the safety of the missionaries. Three of them, who, 
before the revolt, had asked to be baptized and had given satis- 
factory evidence of piety, now renewed their request. One of 
the three was sixty-five years of age, and the others were past 
middle life, and it was regarded by Mr. Boardman as a most 
gratifying proof of the power of the gospel on their hearts, that 
these persons, uninduced by worldly prospects, should in their 
old age give up the customs of their ancestors, and travel a dis- 
tance of fifty miles, by difficult and perilous paths, to receive 
Christian baptism. They were baptized according to their re- 
quest, and were soon afterwards admitted to the ordinance of the 
Lord's supper, which was now observed by the church with much 
solemnity and spiritual preparation, for the first time since the 
return of the missionaries. Mr. Boardman was also particularly 
encouraged at observing that the congregations at the zayat 
were larger and more attentive than they had ever been before, 
and that the number of scholars in the school had very consid- 
erably increased. Cheered by these indications, he commenced 
a system of visiting in succession the villages around Tavoy, 
preaching from house to house, and conversing with those 
whom he met by the way. He usually took with him some 
member of his church, and one or two of the boys from the 
school, and in this way often visited three or four villages in a 
"week, meeting the Burmans in their houses, or conversing with 
them in the fields and by the wayside, every where seeking to 



DECLINING HEALTH OF MR. BOARDMAN. 99 

interest tliem in the religion which he taught. Several of the 
Karen converts also asked of him permission to go to their jun- 
gle, and communicate the gospel to their own countrymen ; and 
Ko Thah-byu, with two others, was often sent across the moun- 
tains, with credentials from Mr. Boardman to preach to the in- 
habitants of distant villages. Thus, like the early disciples, did 
these simple-hearted converts go forth scattering the precious 
seeds of spiritual truth through wide districts of the Burman em- 
pire, and proclaiming to multitudes of degraded Karens the pre- 
cepts and the invitations of the gospel of Christ. The results of 
their travels and their simple-hearted preaching soon began to 
appear. The missionaries were constantly visited by persons 
dwelling beyond the mountains, and even on the borders of 
Siam, who had heard the gospel from these wandering disciples, 
or had read the Scriptures which they had given them, and who 
now came to the teachers, to be instructed in the faith of which 
they had thus been taught only the simplest rudiments. The 
impression which was produced upon the minds of this singu- 
lar people by the earnest teachings of a few early converts, har- 
monizing, as it did, with all the legends and predictions of an 
elder age, well illustrates the sensibility which belongs to their 
nature, and the extraordinary readiness which they evinced to 
receive the gospel. 

In this manner, engaged in superintending the schools con- 
nected with the mission, in sending forth the more intelligent of 
the converts to distribute the Scriptures and to teach their 
countrymen, in preaching the gospel and conversing with 
numerous visiters, and in journeying from village to village 
through the province of Tavoy, Mr. Boardman passed the first 
two years of his missionary life. During this period his labors 
had often been interrupted by sickness and death in his family, 
by the insurrection of the people, and especially by the repeated 
recurrence of hemorrhage of the lungs, — a malady to which he 
had been subject for several years, and which had now serious- 
ly undermined his constitution. Notwithstanding the frequent 
interruptions he had experienced, he had been enabled to 



100 MISSIONS IN BURMA1I. 

accomplish an unusual amount of missionary labor. He had 
gathered a native church of twenty persons, of whom fifteen were 
Karens ; he had carefully instructed many more in the doctrines 
of the gospel who now gave evidence of being truly converted ; 
and in the districts around Tavoy, which he had visited, he had 
the satisfaction of seeing more than one village of Karens 
abandoning the practices of barbarian life, observing the Sab- 
bath, and recognizing the institutions of Christianity. Mrs. 
Boardman had already gone to Maulmain for the recovery of 
her health, and for the purpose of meeting some missionary 
friends who had arrived from America ; and on the 27th of April, 
1830, Mr. Boardman, too much enfeebled by disease to continue 
his arduous labors, now sailed for Maulmain, where he arrived on 
the 3d of May. The Karen disciples bade him farewell with a 
sorrow which they could not repress, for they feared they might 
not see him again. They asked the names of all the mission- 
aries that they might mention each in their prayers, and they 
also manifested much curiosity respecting the Indians of Ameri- 
ca, whom they had been told they resembled in character, 
and expressed their intention to pray for them, that they too 
might receive the gospel. 

The memory of scenes like these lingered in the mind of Mr. 
Boardman during his residence at Maulmain, and was occa- 
sionally renewed by the reports which he received from the 
Karen Christians who travelled among the villages of the 
country. While attached to the mission in that city he was 
able, notwithstanding his feeble health, to perform a large 
amount of missionary labor. Messrs. Judson and Wade were 
at this time absent from the station, and a large share of its 
public duties necessarily rested upon him. He preached on the 
Sabbath twice in English and once in Burman, and once also in 
Burman or in English during the week ; he attended catecheti- 
cal or other similar classes every alternate evening in the week, 
and during each day was occupied in correcting proof-sheets for 
the press, in religious conversation, or in the necessary over- 
sight of the several interests and labors of the mission. Mrs. 



BAPTISM OF KARENS. 101 

Boardman gradually regained her accustomed strength, and at 
Maulmain, as at Tavoy, was constantly employed in teaching 
at the schools, and in conversing with the Burman women who 
came to the mission house. Her infant son was suddenly taken 
from her by death, and a still heavier calamity seemed to be 
threatening her in the declining health of her husband. To him 
the change of residence brought no benefit, and the horizon 
seemed already darkening around him with the shadows of 
death. 

At length, after having spent seven months at Maulmain, 
during which Mr. Boardman had gained only a temporary re- 
spite from the insidious malady that preyed upon him, they re- 
turned to Tavoy, and taking with them the scholars who had 
accompanied them, entered again upon their accustomed labors. 
They were also accompanied by several of the native Christians, 
the principal of whom were Moung Ing, the native preacher of 
Rangoon, and Ko Thah-byu, the earnest-minded and indefatiga- 
ble Karen. 

So soon as it became known in the jungle that the missiona- 
ries had returned to Tavoy, they were visited by many of their 
former friends, who came to them with expressions of joy, and 
loaded them with the presents which they brought. The chil- 
dren too came back to the schools, and the labors of the mission 
were immediately resumed. Of those who came to them within 
a few days after their return, five, whom they had often met 
before, asked for baptism, and at the end of two weeks, Ko Thah- 
byu, who had gone out to spread the tidings that the missiona- 
aries had returned, came back, bringing with him about forty of 
his countrymen. Among them were all the native Christians 
whom they had not seen before, and a number of others, 
who wished to be baptized. Three days were devoted to the 
examination of the candidates who presented themselves for 
baptism. Eighteen of them were accepted, and on the 20th of 
December they were baptized by Moung Ing, under the direction 
of Mr. Boardman, who was, at the time, unable to administer the 
ordinance himself. At the close of the day he met the Karen 
10* 



102 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

church, now increased to thirty-seven members, at the ordinance 
of the Lord's supper, and at the solemn feast mingled his grati- 
tude with theirs, for the auspicious event which had thus nearly 
doubled their little band in a single day. Several others were 
baptized a few weeks later, and many more had visited Mr. 
Boardman, and having been approved by him, were waiting, 
with others whom he had not seen, in their respective villages, 
till he could visit them and admit them to the church by ad- 
ministering the rite of baptism. 

His constitution was now rapidly yielding to the inroads of 
the disease which had so long been consuming his strength, and 
it was evident that his labors were nearly at an end. The 
eager Karens, fearing he might not be able to fulfill the promise 
he had long ago made them, had built a zayat for his reception, 
and offered to come to the city and carry him in a litter on the 
journey, in order that they might secure his presence among 
them. He had just decided to yield to their pressing impor- 
tunities, and to spend the latest effort of his strength in making 
the visit, when Mr. and Mrs. Mason arrived at Tavoy, as aux- 
iliaries to the mission. He knew, by a fatal intuition, that he 
had no time for delay, and, on the 31st of January, a few days 
after the arrival of Mr. Mason, he set out upon the journey. 
He was borne in a cot, on the shoulders of the Karens, and was 
accompanied by Mrs. Boardman and the newly-arrived mission- 
aries. At the end of three days they reached the zayat, which 
stood on the margin of a beautiful stream, at the foot of a rano-e 
of mountains, whose sloping sides were lined with the villages 
of the strange people whom they had come to visit. More than 
a hundred were already assembled at the zayat, nearly half of 
whom were candidates for baptism. Aided by Mr. Mason and 
the native Christians who were present, he examined them in 
the history of their Christian experience, and in the doctrines 
of the gospel. But his strength was exhausted, and he could do 
no more. At the close of the day, just as the sun was sinking 
behind the mountains, his cot was placed at the river side, in 
the midst of the solemn company that was gathered to witness 



DEATH OF MR. BOARDMAN. 103 

the first baptism which that ancient mountain-stream had ever 
beheld. Thirty-four native converts, whose examination had 
been approved, were baptized by Mr. Mason. As he gazed in 
silent gratitude upon the scene, he felt that his work was finished, 
his last promise to these scattered disciples was now fulfilled ; 
and he was ready to depart in peace. He met them again at 
their evening meal, and, still reclining upon his couch, uttered 
to them a few words of parting counsel and took leave of them 
for ever. 

On the following morning the missionaries set out on their re- 
turn to Tavoy, hoping that he might survive the journey, and die 
at last beneath his own roof. But the hope was disappointed. 
Ere the second day had passed, his eyes were closed upon the 
scenes of earth, and his spirit was in heaven with God. 

Thus ended the consecrated life of this noble-hearted and in- 
trepid minister of Christ. He lived to witness a glorious tri- 
umph of the faith which he taught, and died as every missionary 
might well wish to die, in the service of his Master, and sur- 
rounded by those whom he had been instrumental in converting 
from heathenism and in reclaiming from barbarism. His tomb 
is at Tavoy, in the midst of what was once a Buddhist grove, 
and beneath the shadow of a ruined pagoda. It is covered 
by a marble slab, placed there as a tribute of respect by three 
gentlemen who at that time occupied the highest posts in the 
provincial government, and inscribed with a simple epitaph, 
which points the traveller who visits it to the Christian villages 
that skirt the neighboring forests and mountains, as the true 
memorials of his useful and devoted life. 



104 MISSIONS IN BtJRMAH. 



CHAPTER XI. 



The Mission at Maulmain. — Labors of Messrs. Judson and Wade. — Ordina- 
tion of Ko Thah-a. — He is stationed at Rangoon. — Messrs. Judson and 
Wade visit Rangoon. — Circulation of the New Testament and Tracts. — 
Mr. Judson ascends the Irrawaddy to Prome. — His labors at Rangoon in 
Translating the Bible. — Return to Maulmain. — Arrival of other Missiona- 
ries. — Mr. and Mrs. Wade visit Arracan. — Review of the Progress of the 
Mission. 

We have lingered the longer upon the events narrated in the 
preceding chapter, for the purpose of illustrating the origin of 
the mission among the Karens, and the character of the excellent 
missionary who first preached to them the gospel. We return 
now to trace the changes which took place among the missiona- 
ries who remained at Maulmain. 

After Mr. Boardman left that station in 1828, its affairs were 
administered by Mr. Judson and Mr. and Mrs. Wade, with the 
aid of such native assistants as they were able to employ in the 
schools, in translation and in the other services of the mission. 
The blessing of Heaven was bestowed upon their labors. The 
schools were attended by large numbers and with increasing in- 
terest, and of the people who came to the zayat to be instructed 
by the missionaries not a few were converted to the new religion. 
In 1828, thirty were baptized and added to the little church at 
Maulmain, and in the year following twenty-eight more, of whom 
several were soldiers belonging to the English regiments sta- 
tioned there. These were subsequently formed into a church by 
themselves. The hours of every week which could be rescued 
from the more pressing necessities of the mission were devoted, 
especially by Mr. Judson, to revising the translation of the New 
Testament and the epitome of the Old, which he had prepared 
while at Rangoon. Twelve tracts and other treatises on differ- 
ent subjects belonging to the Christian faith were also written 
or revised, and made ready for the press. The mission, how- 



THE STATION AT KANGOON. 105 

ever, at this time was without any means of printing, and was 
obliged to rely wholly upon the press at Serampore. This se- 
rious impediment to the labors of the missionaries they had not 
failed to represent to the Board of Managers, and in May, 1829, 
Mr. Bennett, who had previously been appointed printer to the 
mission, sailed from Philadelphia, with a press and a font of 
types. He arrived at Maulmain in the following January, and 
immediately engaged in putting to press the works which the 
missionaries had prepared. 

In the year 1829, Ko Thah-a, a Burman convert of Eangoon, 
who since the close of the war, in the absence of all the teach- 
ers, had kept alive the little church amidst innumerable perils, 
came to Maulmain, to represent the condition of his fellow dis- 
ciples. The missionaries were delighted with his intelligence, 
his fidelity, and his judicious and persevering zeal, and immedi- 
ately decided to ordain him as pastor of the church at Rangoon. 
He returned to his friends, the first Burman who was fully com- 
missioned to preach the gospel and administer its ordinances. 
Moung Ing, who, on the decline of Amherst, was withdrawn from 
the station there, was soon afterwards ordained and associated 
with Ko Thah-a. Their united labors were highly serviceable to 
the nearly prostrate cause of Christianity in that deluded city. 
Many native Christians, who had been scattered by the tumults 
of war and the rigors of persecution, returned to the city, and in 
the course of the year twenty were baptized and added to the 
church. Early in 1830, Mr. and Mrs. Wade removed to Ran- 
goon, where they remained several months, instructing the new- 
ly-appointed ministers and strengthening the hold which Chris- 
tianity was gradually establishing among the people. In the fol- 
lowing May they were joined by Mr. Juclson, who, in all the 
changes of his life, still lingered with tender solicitude over the 
spot where he first began to preach the gospel to the heathen. 

This attempt to reestablish the mission within that portion of 
the empire which had not been ceded to the English, was made 
with much apprehension and doubt. So stern was the frown 
which the emperor had cast upon all former endeavors to prop- 



106 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

agate Christianity, that, though attracted by the favorable tid- 
ings from Rangoon, the missionaries did not venture to hope 
to obtain a permanent foothold in his dominions. They were, 
however, kindly received at Rangoon by the governor of the 
city, who had known Mr. Judson at Ava, and their residence 
began immediately to attract the attention of the people. The 
subordinate officers of the government and the priests exercised 
a perpetual vigilance, and often uttered complaints to the gov- 
ernor ; but the people came in great numbers for copies of the 
Scriptures, and for religious tracts and books. Hundreds of 
these were often given away, in a single day, to those only who 
asked for them ; and even then the demand was but imperfect- 
ly supplied. Large numbers of Burmans from the interior 
were at this time in Rangoon, and afforded to the missionaries 
unusual facilities for making known the gospel. Some were 
troops who had come for the purpose of enrolment and inspec- 
tion. Many more were merchants who were travelling for the 
purposes of traffic from distant portions of the empire. Though 
watched by priests and officers and often warned not to go, yet 
multitudes of them would flock to the mission house, saying, 
" We have heard the fame of this religion, and are come to get 
books." 

Nor was this, in most instances, an idle and transitory curi- 
osity, that would allow them to throw the books aside and think 
of them no more. They read them with attention, and then 
bore them away to remote districts to be read by others, in con- 
nection with the strange tidings which were reported of the re- 
ligion of the foreign teachers. Thus, as the missionaries ascer- 
tained by unequivocal testimony, were their earliest lessons of 
the gospel conveyed to multitudes of Burmans, who at later pe- 
riods came to inquire more fully concerning the faith which 
they had imperfectly learned. The copy of the Gospels and the 
religious tracts borne in this manner to the dwelling of some 
thoughtful heathen, hundreds of miles from Rangoon, would be 
received as a writing from Heaven. It would be often read 
and its truths would be pondered, until at a future period their 



MR. JUDSON ASCENDS THE IRKAWADDT. 107 

true significance would break upon his mind and guide him to 
the Saviour of sinners. Many an instance of precisely this re- 
sult might be gathered from the journals of missionary expe- 
rience. 

In the summer of 1830, Mr. Judson resolved on making 
an excursion up the Irrawaddy, for the purpose of visiting 
the towns along its banks. He had often sailed up and down 
this broad and beautiful stream, and had observed the crowded 
population of the cities and villages that line its banks ; but he 
had never found an opportunity of preaching among them the 
religion of Christ. Taking with him the faithful assistant 
Moung Ing and four other native Christians, he embarked again 
upon the stream over whose sparkling waters he had been borne 
so many times before, in the varied states of hope and disap- 
pointment, of sorrow and of joy, through which he had passed. 
The journey was marked by many striking incidents. He land- 
ed at many of the villages, where his presence was always hailed 
with eager interest. The people would assemble to hear him 
preach, and receive his books and tracts, which they seemed 
to read with unusual attention. He often beheld little groups 
gathered around some one better able to read than the rest, 
and listening to the reading of a tract or a Gospel, and when 
it was finished tliey would follow the missionary to his boat, or 
salute him from the shore, and ask for another writing. 

Amidst incidents like these, occurring at every village, Mr. 
Judson pushed his journey up the Irrawaddy as far as Prome, 
a large and ancient city about midway between Rangoon and 
Ava. Here he took up his abode with an English gentle- 
man, the only European resident of the city ; for the people 
would not rent him a house, or a spot on which to build, so fear- 
ful were they of being suspected by the government of aiding 
foreigners again to come into the country. He at length ob- 
tained permission of the magistrates to take possession of an old 
zayat which stood near a pagoda, and those who came to the 
pagoda were soon attracted to the teachings of the missionary. 
Thus, beneath the shadow of this pagan temple, he daily pro- 



108 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

claimed to the votaries of Gaudama the doctrines of Christ. 
Among the crowds who now came to the zayat at Prome, im- 
pelled by various motives, were often seen earnest inquirers, 
both from the city and the neighboring country, whose moral 
natures had been roused from the stupor of idolatry, and who 
listened with anxious attention to the words of the missionary. 
At length, however, they all suddenly disappeared. The zayat 
stood open as usual from morning till evening, but not a solitary 
Burman was attracted either by the conversation of the mission- 
ary, or by the impressive services of the daily evening worship. 
The cause of this sudden cessation of visits Mr. Judson was 
for the time at a loss to understand. He learned after his return 
to Rangoon that the emperor, annoyed that he had ventured so 
far into the interior, and was distributing tracts and assailing 
the Burman religion in the very heart of its dominions, had 
given orders that he should be required to leave Prome and 
confine himself to Rangoon. The intelligence that such an order 
had been given was quite sufficient to account for the absence 
of visiters at the zayat. The woongyees, however, were un- 
willing to execute the order, and applied to Major Burney, who 
was then the British Resident at Ava, to interpose his authority 
and require him to depart from Prome. He assured them that 
Mr. Judson was in no way connected with the British govern- 
ment, but simply a teacher of religion, and that to drive him 
from Prome would be regarded by good men in all countries 
as an act of cruel intolerance. But the emperor's orders are 
never to be disobeyed, and are never changed, and Mr. Judson 
unconsciously escaped their execution in this instance only by his 
voluntary departure from Prome, when he returned to Rangoon 
in September, 1830. During this excursion he preached the 
gospel to thousands who had never before heard one of its pre- 
cious truths. From some to whom he had preached he received 
assurances of the deepest interest in what he had told them, and 
many, he believed, had become so far enlightened that they 
never again could bend the knee in the temples of idolatry with- 
out remembering the great God whom he had proclaimed, and 
feeling that they were in the w r rong waj. 



MR. JUDSON S LABORS AT RANGOON. 109 

He returned to Rangoon more impressed than ever before, 
.with the importance of hastening forward the translation of the 
entire Scriptures, a work in which he had already made consid- 
erable progress, but which he had hitherto postponed for the 
more pressing duties of the mission. He accordingly took a 
house, of which the lower part was principally assigned to the 
several native assistants for receiving company and distributing 
tracts, while he confined himself to the rooms above and gave his 
time to completing the translation of the Psalms, which he had 
commenced three years before. So numerous however were the 
visits of inquiring Burmans to the house, that although only the 
more serious and hopeful visiters were admitted to him, yet more 
than half his time was consumed in the interruptions to which 
he was daily subjected. It was in circumstances like these, 
while separated from the other members of the mission and 
dwelling alone with his Burman converts at Rangoon, that Mr. 
Judson accomplished a large part of his noble work of translat- 
ing the Scriptures into the language of Burmah. In the fresh 
hour of morning and by the lonely lamp of midnight, he pursued 
his solitary task, cheered by no sympathies of society, but urged 
on by the sad spectacle of heathenism which lay around him. 
His close confinement and assiduous application to the work 
enfeebled his health, but he could not rest till it was finished. 
The Board of Managers sent him an invitation to return to the 
United States in order to recruit his health, but he chose to 
remain, that thus Burmah might sooner have the Bible in her 
own tongue. 

The external condition of the mission, meanwhile, presented 
many features of the most encouraging character. The gov- 
ernment, though still watchful and jealous and often urged to 
put a stop to his teachings, yet did not interpose its authority, 
and persons of every rank and condition, notwithstanding the 
threats of the priests and of others who opposed the new reli- 
gion, daily came in small companies to the mission house to 
ask for tracts, to hear the Scriptures read, or to converse with 
the Christian converts whom they met there. The minds of 
11 



110 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the people in different parts of the empire had now become 
strongly impressed with the accounts which had reached them 
concerning the religion of the strangers, and few came to Kan- 
goon without inquiring for the teacher and seeking access to his 
conversations. 

At the great Buddhist festival which was held at Rangoon in 
March, 1831, Mr. Judson had a favorable opportunity to judge 
of the interest which had been awakened by the labors of many 
years, and by the tracts and books which the press had sent 
forth through the land. The festival was in honor of Gaudama, 
and was celebrated with great pomp in the magnificent Shway 
Dagong pagoda, which is held in peculiar reverence, since in it 
several real hairs of the divinity are believed to be enshrined. 
The occasion brought together a countless multitude from all 
quarters of the empire, — from every province of the interior, 
from the frontiers of Cassay, and even from the distant borders 
of China and Siam. From many of these remotest districts, 
persons came to Mr. Judson, saying, " Sir, we hear that there is 
an eternal hell, — we are afraid of it. Do give us a writing 
that will tell us how to escape it." Others, perhaps from oppo- 
site frontiers of the empire, would say to him with equal eager- 
ness, " Sir, we have seen a writing that tells us about an eternal 
God. Are you the man that gives away such writings ? If so, 
pray give us one, for we want to know the troth.* Others still, 
from districts less remote, had heard the name of Jesus Christ, 
and asked, " Are you Jesus Christ's man ? Give us a writing 
that tells about Jesus Christ." The number who came in this 
manner to the mission house, to ask for books or tracts or for 
some kind of religious instruction, he estimated at not less than 
six thousand, to all of whom he gave the writings which they 
desired, and, had the supply been sufficient, he might have given 
away twice the number without any apprehension of reckless- 
ness or waste. 

In the summer of 1831, it was arranged that Mr. and Mrs. 
"Wade should proceed to Bengal, and take passage to the United 
States in order to recruit the health of Mrs. Wade, which had 



THE STATION AT MAULMAIN. Ill 

long been declining. Their departure made it necessary that 
Mr. Judson should return to Maulmain, to aid in managing the 
interests of that station, now the leading station in the mission. 
He arrived in July, and was delighted with the progress which 
the doctrines of the gospel had made during the thirteen months 
in which he had been absent. The mission had been strength- 
ened by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. Mason, Kincaid and Jones, 
with their wives. Mr. Kincaid together with Mr. Bennett 
continued to reside at Maulmain, while Mr. Jones went to Ran- 
goon to take the place of Mr. Judson. The little church had 
become considerably enlarged by the baptism of Burmans, Ta- 
lings and Karens, and the press had multiplied copies of tracts, 
epitomes of the Old Testament and portions of the New Testa- 
ment, to the amount of nearly two millions of pages. The 
missionaries had also extended their labors far into the neigh- 
boring jungle. They had made repeated journeys to distant 
villages of the Karens, and at different places had baptized 
twenty converts, fourteen of whom were formed into a separate 
church at a place which now received the name of Wadesville, 
in honor of the missionary who first preached there the truths 
of the gospel. In an account which Mr. Judson gave of the 
entire mission at the close of the year 1831, it is stated that the 
number who had been baptized during the year was in all two 
hundred and seventeen, — one hundred and thirty-six at Maul- 
main, seventy-six at Tavoy, and five at Rangoon. Of these, 
one hundred and nine were Karens, eighty-nine were Europe- 
ans, and nineteen were Burmans and Tarings. 

The ship in which Mr. and Mrs. Wade embarked for Cal- 
cutta was overtaken by a succession of violent gales, which 
drove them far from their course and obliged the captain to 
put into Kyouk Phyou, a port on the coast of Arracan. Here 
they were kindly received by Colonel Wood, the military com- 
mandant, and finding that Mrs. Wade's health was greatly ben- 
efited by the change of air, they abandoned their design of re- 
turning to the United States. They remained at Kyouk Phyou 
five or six weeks, an interval which Mr. Wade devoted to 



112 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

preaching, or to conversation with the people in the town and 
the neighboring country, and distributing tracts and copies of the 
Scriptures. In September they returned to Maulmain, and Mrs. 
Wade's health being now reestablished, they immediately pro- 
ceeded, in accordance with the advice of their associates, to 
Mergui, the capital of a province of the same name, situated a 
hundred and fifty miles south of Tavoy. This place had been 
visited in 1827, by Ko Ing, who spent a considerable time in 
the service of the mission among its inhabitants. The residence 
of Mr. and Mrs. Wade continued but six months ; during which 
time five persons were baptized and organized into a church, 
of which Ko Ing was appointed the pastor, — when the mission- 
aries were summoned away to Rangoon, to take the place of 
Mr. Jones, who now removed to Siam, in order to commence 
a mission in that country. 

Eighteen years had now elapsed since the mission was first 
established, amidst many discouragements, in the city of Ran- 
goon. This crowded period had been marked by many pain- 
ful and many joyous events, and we may well pause for a mo- 
ment and consider what results had been accomplished through 
all these years of missionary labor and sacrifice. The growth 
of the mission had been slow but constant and healthy, and the 
aspect which it now presented was one which the churches in 
America might well contemplate with gratitude and joy. Its 
stations had been multiplied till, in addition to its original seat, 
it occupied three of the principal cities on that part of the coast 
which was embraced in the possessions of the English. The 
number of its missionaries had been increased to fourteen, seven 
males and seven females, besides several others who had been 
appointed, but had not yet arrived in the country. The num- 
ber who had been baptized and admitted to the churches at the 
several stations was in all three hundred and ninety-three, of 
whom two hundred and eighty were natives, and one hundred 
and thirteen were foreigners, principally soldiers of the English 
regiments to whom the missionaries had preached while they 
were acquiring the language of the country. From the several 



RESULTS OF THE MISSION. 113 

churches eleven had been excommunicated for unworthy con- 
duct, and eleven had died in the profession of the Christian 
faith. The press had been kept in constant operation by Mr. 
Bennett, who, with such assistance as he was able to employ, 
had printed not less than two hundred thousand tracts and books, 
which had been widely circulated throughout the empire. 
The New Testament was now nearly complete, and many sep- 
arate books and a full epitome of the Old Testament had 
already been printed. 

At most of the stations schools had been established, in which 
were gathered, principally under the instruction of the ladies of 
the mission, the children of the native Christians, and all others 
who could be induced to join them ; and far beyond the imme- 
diate vicinity in which the missionaries dwelt, and in which 
their zayats were opened, they had repeatedly gone on distant 
excursions, preaching from village to village, distributing to all 
who sought them tracts and copies of the Scriptures, and bap- 
tizing those who gave satisfactory evidence of piety and faith 
in Jesus Christ. In this manner there had been excited a 
spirit of earnest and curious inquiry, the proofs of which were 
constantly presenting themselves to the notice of the missiona- 
ries. Mr. Judson speaks of it as the most prominent feature 
of the mission at this period of its history, and, as he gazes upon 
the scene which lies around him, he expresses the solicitude of 
" a person who sees a mighty engine beginning to move, over 
which he knows he has no control." The gospel was beginning 
to address its solemn precepts and its glorious promises to the 
mind of the nation, and the ancient superstitions of the coun- 
try seemed to be losing their power. 

These results had been reported at the meetings of the Board 
and the Convention in the United States, and had awakened in 
the churches of the land the liveliest interest in the cause of 
foreign missions. The contributions to the treasury of the Con- 
vention had increased to the sum of 822,600, nearly four times 
the amount with which the mission was originally established. 
The enterprise also had become the source of great spiritual 
11* 



114 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

benefits to the denomination in America. It had united the 
interests and sympathies of a multitude of widely-scattered 
churches, and had offered to the whole body of American Bap- 
tists a common object of philanthropic effort and of glowing 
anticipation. The conception of giving the gospel to those who 
know it not, always ennobles the mind into which it enters, — 
and, animated by the spirit of the generous enterprise, the 
widow came with her mite, and rich men with their gifts, to 
contribute to the accomplishment of the magnificent design. 
The appeal which it made for the services of Christian laborers 
was responded to by several youthful candidates for the minis- 
try, and at the close of the year 1831, not less than nine addi- 
tional missionaries were ready to sail from the country, and join 
the ranks of the Burman Mission. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Progress of the Mission from 1832 to 1835. — Mr. Judson devoted to Trans 
lating the Bible. — Resolutions of the Board at Salem. — Establishment of 
Out-Stations. — Christian Villages. — Excursions of Mr. Mason from Tavoy. 
— Great changes among the Karens. — Their Language reduced to Writing 
by Mr. Wade. — Mr. and Mrs. Wade obliged to sail for the United States. 
Arrival of new Companies of Missionaries. — Mr. Kincaid at Rangoon and 
at Ava. — Mr. Judson completes the Translation of the Bible. — Mr. and 
Mrs. Wade in the United States. — Results of their Visit. — Their Return 
with additional Missionaries. — Death of Miss Cummings. 

The period between the commencement of the year 1832 and 
the commencement of 1835 was marked by signal blessings be- 
stowed on the labors of the missionaries, and by the continued 
growth of all the interests of the mission. So numerous, how- 
ever, are the details, and so widely scattered are the scenes to 
which they relate, that the limits assigned to this narrative will 
admit only a rapid survey of their general character, with a brief 
sketch of the results which they were instrumental in producing. 



RESOLUTIONS OF THE BOARD AT SALEM. 115 

Within this period five missionaries, with their wives and three 
unmarried female assistants, arrived in Burmah and entered 
upon their appointed labors. Several new stations were com- 
menced, new enterprises for the extension of the gospel were 
set on foot, and results of the greatest importance were brought 
about in the general progress of the mission. 

Mr. Judson, after his return to Maulmain in 1831, continued 
to give his attention, with as little interruption as possible, to 
the translation of the Scriptures into the Burman tongue, the 
great work to which he had already consecrated some of the 
best years of his life, and whose accomplishment was anticipated 
with the liveliest interest, alike by the Burman converts and by 
the friends of missions in every land. So assiduous were his 
labors, that by the end of the following year he was able to 
report to the Board that the New Testament had already passed 
through the press, and that, if his life and health were spared, 
he might reasonably expect to complete the translation of the 
entire Bible in two years more. 

After Mr. Judson had completed the translation of the New 
Testament, in accordance with principles which he had already 
submitted to the Board, it became necessary for that body to iix 
upon some rules for the guidance of their missionaries in all 
their endeavors to translate the Scriptures into the languages of 
the heathen. Accordingly, at the annual meeting which was 
held at Salem in 1833, the following resolutions were adopted, 
as an expression of their views and those of their brethren, in 
relation to this important question. 

" 1. That the Board feel it to be their duty to adopt all prudent 
measures to give to the heathen the pure word of God in their 
own language ; and to furnish their missionaries with all the 
means in their power to make the translations as exact a repre- 
sentative of the mind of the Holy Spirit as may be possible. 

" 2. That all the missionaries of the Board, who are or who 
shall be engaged in translating the Scriptures, be instructed to 
endeavor, by earnest prayer and diligent study, to ascertain the 
precise meaning of the original text ; to express that meaning 



116 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

as exactly as the nature of the languages into which they shall 
translate the Bible will permit, and to transfer no words which 
are capable of being literally translated." 

Whatever copies of the Scriptures, or portions of the Scrip- 
tures, had hitherto been circulated by the missionaries, were 
furnished at the expense of the American Bible Society. This 
continued to be the case, even with Mr. Judson's translation, 
till the year 1836, when that society adopted a resolution " to 
encourage only such versions as conform in the principle of their 
translation to the common English version." This resolution 
put an end to all appropriations from the American Bible 
Society for the translation and circulation of versions of the 
Scriptures made by Baptist missionaries, in accordance with the 
instructions which the Board had adopted three years before. In 
these circumstances, in April, 1837, was formed the American 
and Foreign Bible Society, the leading object of whose organ- 
ization was to cooperate w T ith the Board of Missions in promot- 
ing the translation and circulation of the Scriptures among the 
heathen. In the twelve years which have elapsed since its 
origin, the Board has received from this society upwards of one 
hundred and fifteen thousand dollars, which have been appropri- 
ated to the publication and circulation of the Scriptures trans- 
lated by the agency of the several missions. The sum which 
had already been contributed by the American Bible Society is 
about thirty thousand dollars. 

Hitherto the churches which were connected with the mission 
had been planted almost exclusively in the larger towns, though 
many of the natives, both Burmans and Karens, who had been 
baptized, dwelt in the villages of the country, separated from 
each other and removed from the immediate care of the mission- 
aries. Their scattered condition was productive of serious 
disadvantage to their own growth in Christian knowledge and 
piety, and became a source of great inconvenience and of much 
additional labor to those on whom they depended for instruction 
and guidance. It was accordingly determined that an attempt 
should be made to collect them together at central points easy 



COMMUNITIES OF CHRISTIAN KAKENS. 117 

of access, in villages of their own, in which they might share 
each others' Christian sympathy, and enjoy the regular ministry 
and the appointed ordinances of the gospel, together with the 
incidental advantages of schools for their children. In 1832 
Mr. Judson made two separate journeys into the jungle for the 
purpose of meeting the native converts and instructing the in- 
quirers who might come to him, and in each of these journeys 
he selected the site and laid the foundation of a new Christian 
community. The first of these was not far from Wadesville, 
and was called Newville, where he gathered the disciples from 
the neighboring district into a separate church, and baptized 
twenty-five additional converts. The second was on the banks 
of the Salwen, sixty miles north of Maulmain, and received the 
name of Chummerah. Here a considerable number of the na- 
tive Christians, principally Karens who had been scattered over 
the jungle, now took up their abode and were organized into a 
church, to which nineteen were added by baptism during the 
visit of the missionary. The foundations of both these little 
communities were laid with religious services, and the highest 
hopes were entertained that they would immediately become 
oases in the social waste around them, and prove at length nur- 
series of Christian civilization for the heathen of Burmah. 

At about the same time, a still larger village was commenced 
in the province of Tavoy, on* the banks of the Tenasserim, 
about two days' journey from the city. The Christians from 
Tshick-koo, Kan-tha, and seven other villages lying along the 
margin of the river, were assembled by Mr. Mason ; the disad- 
vantages of their situation were explained to them, and the pro- 
posal made, that they should abandon their present residences, 
and, with their families, form a community by themselves, in 
order that they might all be furnished with religious privileges 
and with schools for their children. The people gladly accept- 
ed the proposal, and a spot was selected whereon to build the 
new Christian town. The site was upon an eminence rising in 
the midst of a luxuriant plain of many miles in extent, and 
skirted in the distance by the blue mountains of Tavoy. It had 



_ 118 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

formerly been occupied with the dwellings of men, and was 
known as " the ancient city," but all tradition of its former in- 
habitants had utterly perished. A small mission house was 
immediately erected, and around it the dwellings of the natives 
soon began to appear, — still marked by rudeness and simplicity, 
yet presenting some attractive features of social comfort and 
dawning civilization. The new settlement was called Matah, 
or City of Love. It soon became the seat of a flourishing church 
and schools — the home of a Christian population; and now, 
after the lapse of fifteen years, in which the people have been 
constantly advancing in civilization, Matah presents a striking 
illustration of the astonishing change which the labors of the 
missionary accomplish in the manners and morals, in the lives 
and characters of the heathen. The Christian Karens who 
dwell here number upwards of three hundred ; they have long 
ago abandoned the wandering habits of their race, and com- 
menced the regular industry of agriculture and trade. Cleanli- 
ness, decency, and order mark their daily lives, and they are 
already beginning, from the products of their own labor, to sup- 
port the schools which have been established, and the institu- 
tions of the gospel which have conferred on them such manifold 
blessings.* 

This gathering of the Karen converts into separate commu- 
nities was an undertaking of the utmost consequence to the 
civilization and religious culture of this interesting, but hitherto 
wild and wandering race of men. Scattered as they had been, 
and exposed to all the evil influences of barbarian life, even 
though they were converted to Christianity, their advancement 
in piety and Christian knowledge must always have been slow 
and uncertain. The religion of the Bible enjoins its highest 
duties and confers its richest blessings only upon man in a 
social state. The scattered dwellers of the mountain, or the 



* Matah, and the other Karen villages under the care of the missionaries, 
were visited by Kev. Dr. Malcom in 1836. For a description of them, see 
Malcom's Travels, Vol. L, p. 41, et seq. 



MR. MASON'S LABORS AT TAYOY. 119 

unsettled wanderers of the wilderness, can but feebly compre- 
hend the true significance or appreciate the real excellence of 
the gospel ; and, notwithstanding all the moral sensibility which 
seems inherent in the mind of the Karens, it were vain to ex- 
pect them to make much progress as a Christian people, until 
they have abandoned their wandering habits and settled in 
communities which admit the practice of the social virtues. 
The towns which were begun at this period, though they have 
not all proved permanent, have been productive of great ad- 
vantage to the mission. Many others have since been estab- 
lished, and the traveller amid those hitherto desolate regions 
now beholds the germs of civilized society springing up beneath 
the gentle influences of Christian truth. 

In all the cities where stations had been established the 
zayats and schools were constantly visited by people from the 
country, who often expressed the utmost interest in the new 
faith, and bore ample testimony to the impression which its pro- 
mulgation was producing in the distant jungles from which they 
came. In Tavoy the labors of the missionaries were now con- 
fined almost entirely to the Karens. These people, alike in 
the city and the country, had from the beginning received the 
gospel far more readily than the Burmans, and in their visits to 
Mr. Mason often solicited him to go out and preach in the villa- 
ges of the interior, where many Christian converts were living. 
Accordingly, early in 1832, he started with two native assistants 
on a missionary excursion to the settlements which lie south- 
east of Tavoy. They were the settlements to which Mr. Board- 
man had made one of his earliest visits in the jungle. The 
journey at first was along an unfrequented route, and through a 
region marked by scenery of striking grandeur and beauty. Of 
the people whom he met a few had heard Mr. Boardman preach, 
and some had obtained tracts which they had read and thought 
upon ; but the greater part were utterly indifferent to the teach- 
ings of the missionary. At the end of a month, he came to the 
villages under the jurisdiction of Moung So, the interesting 
chief who had early visited the missionaries at Tavoy. The 



120 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

tidings of his approach reached the Christian Karens, and they 
came forth in troops to welcome him. He beheld with aston- 
ishment the change which had been wrought in their condition 
since they first listened to the gospel from the lips of Mr. 
Boardman. As he talks with them of the truths of Christian- 
ity, as he enters their dwellings and receives their hospitality, as 
he looks upon the fruits of their industry, and breathes the spirit 
of their well-ordered life, he records with enthusiasm the feelings 
that possess his mind. " I no longer date," he writes, " from 
a heathen land. Heathenism has fled these banks. I eat the 
rice and potatoes and fruit cultivated by Christian hands, 
look on the fields of Christians, and see no dwellings but those 
of Christian families. I am seated in the midst of a Christian 
village, surrounded by a people that love as Christians, converse 
as Christians, act like Christians, and in my eyes look like 
Christians." 

Similar excursions were frequently made by Mr. Mason to 
the scattered residences of the recent converts as well as to the 
Christian villages of the Karens, in the course of which he 
usually found some who were ready to be baptized, and often met 
with persons who referred their change of religious belief and 
character back to the early instructions of Mr. Boardman, or to 
some book of the Scriptures in the Burman language which had 
been given them to read. Though generally received with 
kindness and hospitality, he was yet sometimes repulsed with 
rudeness from the dwellings even of the Karens, especially 
of those who had become Buddhists and identified themselves 
with the religion of the country. His journal records occasional 
instances of opposition, in which he was left to spend the night in 
the open air, because none would admit him to their dwellings, 
or in which, when he began to speak of Christianity, they re- 
fused to hear him, and begged him to depart from their village. 
This opposition he was often able to overcome by the interest 
he manifested in their physical comfort, or by his attention to 
the sick and the efficiency of the simple remedies which he pre- 
scribed for their recovery. Thus, like the early apostles, does 



KAREN LANGUAGE REDUCED TO WRITING. 121 

the missionary make himself all things to all men, that by all 
means he may be enabled to save those to whom he is sent. 

In addition to the scattered and unsettled condition of the 
Karens, the missionaries, as their attention was directed to this 
people, encountered another difficulty at the very threshold of 
their undertaking. The Karen language had never been re- 
duced to writing, and without a written language they could be 
expected to make but little progress either in Christian culture 
or in civilization. Mr. Wade had been the longest engaged in 
the study of the spoken dialects which were in use among them. 
In February, 1832, having gone to Maulmain for the benefit 
of his health, which was seriously impaired, he was again brought 
in contact with the Karen population, and immediately resumed 
the careful study of their language. With such aid as he could 
derive from Christian Karens who had learned to read Burman 
or Taling, he ascertained the elements of which it is composed, 
and soon arranged them in an alphabet made up, with the excep- 
tion of only two letters, of Burman or of Taling characters. 
By the month of August of the same year he had completed a 
spelling book containing about fifteen hundred radical words, 
and also made a translation of Mrs. Judson's Burman Catechism 
and of the Scripture precepts comprised in the " View of the 
Christian Religion/' The spelling book was immediately put 
to press and introduced into the schools of the Karens, and 
the comprehensiveness of the new alphabet was fully tested by 
writing out an ancient Karen poem, which w r as contained in the 
oral traditions of the people. The poem, to the surprise of the 
missionary, was found to contain an account of the creation of 
the world, of " man in a state of innocency, and his fall by par- 
taking of the forbidden fruit through the suggestions of Satan, 
just as related in the Bible."* 

Mr. Wade having accomplished this important work for the 
Karen department of the mission, was again attacked with that 

* These and other similar coincidences led at one time to the supposition 
that the Karens may be of Hebrew origin. — American Baptist Magazine, vol. 
13, p. 201. 

12 



122 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

depressing malady, the liver complaint, which had already within 
the year caused frequent interruptions to his labors. After 
having tried every remedy short of a change of climate, he 
sailed for the United States at the close of the summer of 1832, 
and arrived in the following May. He was accompanied by 
Mrs. Wade and by two native Christians — Moung Shway 
Moung, a Burman, and Ko Chet-thing, a Karen. 

The absence of Mr. and Mrs. Wade at a time when the sta- 
tions of the mission had become so numerous, imposed additional 
burdens upon the missionaries, and, in consequence of the chan- 
ges which it made necessary, delayed the execution of many 
important plans. Mr. Cutter, a printer, had already joined the 
mission, and brought with him a power-press, which, under the 
direction of Mr. Bennett, he prepared to set in immediate oper- 
ation at Maulmain. But before he had become acquainted 
with the new language he was to print, his instructer and guide, 
Mr. Bennett, was obliged to abandon the care of the press and 
go and occupy the station at Rangoon, which Mr. Kincaid had 
left vacant in order to visit Ava. Mr. Judson spent several 
months at Chummerah, instructing the converts there, though 
still prosecuting, as assiduously as he was able, his chosen work 
of translating the Bible ; while Mr. Mason, left alone at Tavoy, 
, was charged with the whole duties of that large and growing 
station, and with the additional care of the Karen villages that 
were scattered among the mountains. Thus, pressed with du- 
ties greater than they could perform, they were obliged to listen 
to many a call for religious instruction which they could not 
answer, and to pass unheeded many an attractive spot in the 
wide field around them, which they would have been glad to 
occupy and cultivate. They had already, several months be- 
fore, addressed to the Board of Managers and their brethren in 
America an earnest appeal for additional missionaries, and they 
were waiting with anxious interest the arrival of those who 
were now far on their voyage to the shores of Burmah. 

The first of January, 1833, was a glad day for the members 
of the mission, for it witnessed the arrival of four missionaries 



THE MISSION REINFORCED. 123 

of whose appointment they had already received notice, and of 
whose labors they were now in unusual need. These w r ere Rev. 
Thomas Simons, Mr. Royal B. Hancock, a printer, with his 
wife, and Miss Sarah Cummings, a lady experienced in teaching, 
who was to be employed as instructress at one of the stations. 
In the following June the mission was still further strengthened 
by the arrival of Rev. Messrs. Brown and Webb, with their 
wives, and Miss C. J. Harringto.n, afterwards Mrs. Simons, — 
all of whom, after spending the remainder of the year in study- 
ing the language at Maulmain, removed together to Rangoon 
in January, 1834. The former of these missionary companies 
brought with them two additional printing presses, one large 
standing press, a large fount of English types, and all the ma- 
terials for a type foundry. The arrangements for printing were 
now complete, and fully adequate to the w r ants of the mission. 
A strong house of brick, sufficiently large for the accommoda- 
tion of the several presses now at Maulmain, was immediately 
erected, and the great w r ork w r as commenced of multiplying 
copies of the Scriptures and tracts in Burman, Taling and Ka- 
ren, which have since been scattered to the remotest parts of 
the empire, and have communicated to multitudes of minds their 
first lessons of gospel truth. 

The arrival of these missionaries revived the drooping spirits 
of their brethren, and imparted new energy to all departments 
of the mission. The tidings which they brought of awakening 
zeal and growing philanthropy among the churches of America, 
w r ere fitted to encourage the missionary in his solitary toils, and 
bring him in nearer sympathy with the scenes and the friends 
of his native land. The effect w T as obvious in all the interests 
of the mission, and is often mentioned in the journals which at 
this period record its history. 

Mr. Kincaid had now penetrated the heart of Burmah Proper, 
and we turn to a brief review of his labors and those of his 
associates at the exposed and perilous stations of Rangoon and 
Ava. The scene which is here presented is that of a people 
crushed to the earth beneath the combined oppressions of super- 



124 MISSIONS IN BUEMAH. 

stition and despotism. No British power is here exerted to 
secure the safety of the unprotected missionary. The shrines 
of heathenism are jealously guarded by imperial authority. 
Despotism frowns darkly over the land, and priestly persecution 
is constantly watching for those who dare desert the supersti- 
tions of their ancestors. Yet the intrepid missionary toils 
bravely on, blessed with the favor of Heaven, and encouraged 
by many unexpected manifestations of an awakening spirit of 
inquiry among the deluded votaries of Buddhism. 

Mr. Kincaid first went to Rangoon early in the spring of 
1832, at about the time of Mr. Wade's arrival there from 
Mergui and Maulmain. They called on the viceroy a few 
days after their arrival, and presented him with a map of the 
world, lettered in Burman characters, and other works relating 
to geography, chronology and astronomy. He received them 
with courtesy and expressed much interest in the map, which 
was the first he had seen in Burman letters. What, how- 
ever, particularly excited his curiosity was the account which 
he had heard respecting the printing press ; he wished to know 
if it was true that it could multiply copies of a writing without 
limit; and after inquiring the price of a press, he requested the 
missionaries to order one for him. The schools which had been 
established by Mr. Jones continued to flourish under the care 
of Mr. Kincaid; and though he was yet unable to preach in the 
Burman tongue, he constantly maintained many of the public 
services of the mission by the aid of his native assistants. At 
the close of the year he went to Madras, where he was married 
to Miss Barbara McBain, daughter of a military officer in the 
service of the East India Company. During his absence the 
two teachers to whom he had entrusted the schools and the 
other concerns of the mission were seized, by order of an infe- 
rior officer of the government notorious for his hostility to 
Christianity, fined and imprisoned, and afterwards whipped in 
a shocking manner. This act of malignant violence was the 
means of breaking up the schools, and for the time of intimi- 






MISSIONARY LABOR RESUMED IN AVA. 125 

dating all the inquirers who had frequented the zayat and ex- 
pressed an interest in the new religion. 

On his return to Rangoon, notwithstanding these unfavora- 
ble occurrences, Mr. Kincaid was soon visited by persons in 
various conditions of life, who often came in great numbers, 
some from the city and others from distant provinces, to ask him 
questions and to hear him converse. Some of them would 
confess their belief in the Eternal God ; others would say they 
had long^een reading the books and thinking about Christianity, 
exclaiming, " It is wonderful ! " — "A great light that is visiting 
the world." At the period of the famous annual festival of 
Gaudama, the visiters grew still more numerous ; not all to in- 
quire concerning religion, but many to ask about the truths of 
science, or the operations of the printing press ; and when they 
obtained some dim idea of the nature and results of the press, 
they exclaimed, " How ignorant the Burmans are ! They do 
not know any thing." In February, 1833, three Burmans were 
baptized; others had requested baptism, but it was thought 
best to delay its administration on account of the vigilance of 
the Burman officers. Many more were known to be secret be- 
lievers in Christianity, who did not dare openly to express the 
faith which they cherished. 

The visiters who came to the zayat from the interior had often 
said to Mr. Kincaid, "Why do you not go to Ava and to all the 
great cities of the empire ? Many have heard of the new re- 
ligion and the books, and wish to understand them." Since the 
death of Dr. Price none of the missionaries had visited the 
capital, though the desirableness of maintaining a station there 
had been frequently forced upon their attention. It had long 
been deemed unsafe for Mr. Judson to appear there, on account 
of his supposed connection with the English conquest of the 
country, but there was no reason to apprehend that serious 
molestation would be offered to any other missionary who should 
conduct his labors with prudence. In these circumstances it 
was decided that Mr. Kincaid should go to Ava, and attempt 
again to plant a station there should no absolute hinderance be 
12* 



126 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

offered on his arrival. Having obtained the requisite pass with 
great difficulty from the viceroy, he left Rangoon on the Gth of 
April, 1833, accompanied by Mrs. Kincaid and her sister and 
three native assistants, carrying with him 17,000 tracts and a 
large number of copies of the Gospels of Luke and John, of the 
Acts of the Apostles, and the Epistles. Their passage up the 
Irrawaddy was beset with dangers, yet marked by many occur- 
rences of great interest, illustrative of the singular spirit of in- 
quiry which, in spite of all dread either of the government or 
the priesthood, seemed every where to pervade the minds of 
the people. They landed at nearly three hundred towns and 
villages along the banks of the stream, and in nearly every 
place which they visited they found some traces of the influence 
which had been exerted by the native Christians, by tracts and 
books or other agencies connected with the mission. 

They arrived at Ava on the 30th of May, where a very dif- 
ferent spirit seemed at first to array itself in opposition to their 
plans. Mr. Kincaid was greatly perplexed with the difficulty 
of finding a house in which he could dwell with his family, even 
for the briefest period. His application to the government was 
answered by repeated delays, made on the most trivial pre- 
tences ; and, on his taking possession of a house without the per- 
mission of the authorities, he was subjected to the gravest inso- 
lence and violence by the assaults of a mob headed by the 
king's physician, to whom the house had been assigned on the 
death of its proprietor. At length the British Resident, regard- 
ing Mrs. Kincaid and her sister as English subjects, addressed 
a strong remonstrance to the woongyees, who, now thoroughly 
alarmed at their conduct, immediately provided the missionaries 
with a house in the midst of the city, and punished the physi- 
cian who had threatened them with violence. Thus was a 
branch of the mission again established in the proud capital 
where in other days the religion of the Saviour had been de- 
liberately rejected, and where its dauntless heralds had endured 
the most cruel sufferings. 

Mr. Kincaid had resided here but a short time, engaged in 



PRINTING PRESS IN AYA. 127 

the distribution of books and the usual occupations of a mis- 
sionary, when he began to witness manifestations of the same 
eager spirit of inquiry of which he had met with so many indi- 
cations at Eangoon and along the Irrawaddy. In his journal 
of July 17 he writes : " The very thing that ought to rejoice 
me often troubles me ; it is the numbers that are flocking to the 
verandah to read and to hear the word of God. If I would, I 
could not resist the tide that is setting in. Our verandah is 
pretty well filled during the day, and sometimes forty or fifty 
come in at a time." He was treated with civility by the offi- 
cers of the government, and was invited to visit the prince, 
Mekara, who was a man of education and able to speak Eng- 
lish. The prince held a long conversation with him, and asked 
him for several books of science. 

The verandah of Mr. Kincaid was now daily visited by per- 
sons of all classes, to the number often of one or two hundred, 
who engaged in discussions with the missionary and the native 
assistants, taking sides for or against the new religion with such 
zeal as made him fear they might excite the jealousy of the 
government. Two persons were at length baptized, — one of 
them a priest, a man of eminent learning, who had long been 
one of the most popular preachers of Buddhism in Ava. His 
conversion to Christianity was known throughout the city, but, 
to the surprise of the missionaries, it did not provoke persecu- 
cution or excite opposition. The supply of books and tracts 
which Mr. Kincaid had brought with him was now exhausted ; 
and, as the king had expressed a curiosity about the operations 
of the printing press, he sent to Maulmain for Mr. Cutter to 
come up to Ava and bring w r ith him one of the presses. The 
plan being approved by the members of the mission, Mr. Cut- 
ter set out for the capital, and arrived early in January, 1834. 
The press was immediately put in operation, and the printing 
of tracts commenced, and two other places of preaching were 
opened in different parts of the city, to which hundreds resorted 
every day. 

The establishment of the press at Ava, and the interest w T ith 
which the preaching and the books of the missionaries were 



128 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

regarded by the people, at length called forth the interference 
of the government. At first, they were only forbidden to circu- 
late a particular tract, called " The Investigator." In the fol- 
lowing March, however, they were summoned before the high 
court of the empire, and formally questioned concerning their 
objects and employment in Ava. These they fully avowed 
and vindicated, on grounds which Moung Zah, the minister, did 
not choose to debate ; for he closed the audience by saying, 
" Rangoon and Maulmain are very good places, — go there." 
While they were waiting in hourly expectation of a written 
order to depart, Major Burney, the British Resident, interposed 
in their behalf, and the fear in which the authority of England 
was held induced the minister to say that he only objected to 
their living in the city. They accordingly immediately took up 
their abode in a house without the gates, but continued, with no 
farther interruption from the government and with but little 
abatement of the interest of the people, the accustomed labors 
of the mission. 

The exhibition of curiosity and earnest inquiry concerning 
the truths of Christianity which Mr. Kincaid was constantly 
witnessing, is a remarkable phenomenon in the mission at this 
period of its history. It seemed like the waking of the popular 
mind to the light of Christian truth, — the commencement of a 
mighty and speedy revolution in the religion of the country. 
But though hundreds were ready to admit the doctrines of the 
gospel, and expressed their utter contempt of the teachings of 
Buddhism, yet, with few exceptions, they came to ho positive 
conclusion, made no progress, and failed to reach the kingdom 
of heaven. They created in the missionaries hopes which 
were never realized, and gave promise of spiritual fruits which 
were never borne. Yet while so few embraced the religion of 
Christ, it cannot be doubted that many a mind relinquished for- 
ever its belief in the superstitions of Gaudama, and it may be 
that some, whose history was never known to the missionaries, 
silently accepted the faith of the gospel and trusted in the Sa- 
viour whom it offers. 



BURMAN BIBLE COMPLETED. 129 

On the 31st of January, 1834, Mr. Judson wrote the last 
page of his translation of the Bible into the Burman tongue. 
It was the noble task which he had prosecuted amidst the changes 
of rnany years, often in solitude, in sickness and in sorrow ; and 
now that it was completed, he dedicated it with pious gratitude 
and an humble sense of its imperfections to the service and the 
glory of God. The scene, as incidentally mentioned in his 
journal, is one of affecting interest and grandeur. Poets, histo- 
rians and moralists have all recorded the feelings of exultation 
with which they have completed some work which they imagined 
" the world would not willingly \et die." But the missionary 
retires alone, and with the last leaf of his imperishable work in 
his hand, he prays for the forgiveness of Heaven on all the sins 
that have mingled with his labors, and devoutly commends it to 
the mercy and grace of God, to be used as an instrument in 
converting the heathen to Himself. Thus was the greatest of 
blessings conferred on the people of Burmah, and in its unculti- 
vated soil was planted the tree of life whose perennial leaves 
shall be for the healing of the nation. The translation re- 
ceived the emendations and corrections of its author, and has 
been pronounced by scholars and philologists acquainted with 
the Burman tongue, to be unusually accurate and perfect, — 
well fitted to transmit to successive generations the unadulterated 
word of God. The entire Bible was put immediately to press, 
and handsome appropriations were made by the American Bible 
Society to aid its publication. 

In the following April, Mr. Judson was married to Mrs. 
Sarah H. Boardman, who since the death of her husband had 
been constantly engaged in the service of the mission, and at- 
tached to the station at Tavoy. The school which she here 
conducted with unusual success for many years, was for a time 
suspended on her removal to Maulmain, but was resumed by 
Mrs. Wade after her return from America. 

As has been already mentioned, Mr. and Mrs. Wade, with 
their native companions, arrived in the United States in May, 
1833. Mr. Wade's health was greatly benefited by the voyage, 



130 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

but it was deemed advisable by the Board that his visit to the 
country should be prolonged, and made tributary as far as pos- 
sible to the interests of the mission. He was accordingly re- 
quested to visit, with his missionary companions, the principal 
cities of the Union, and attend the meetings of Associations and 
other public bodies of the denomination. It had also been fre- 
quently suggested that as the Burman language had now been 
made comparatively easy of acquisition, our missionaries might 
acquire it before sailing from the country, and thus materially 
abridge the time requisite for preparation after their arrival. 
There were now eight persons who had received appointments 
as missionaries to the East and were waiting to proceed to the 
places of their destination ; and the presence of Mr. and Mrs. 
Wade in this country, with two intelligent natives, furnished a 
favorable opportunity for making the experiment which had 
been proposed. The Board accordingly resolved immediately 
to open a mission school at Hamilton, N. Y. ; — a place already 
consecrated to theologicar studies, and presenting to the newly- 
appointed missionaries many advantages of congenial society 
and literary companionship. It was commenced on the 20th 
of June, 1833, and continued nine months. It was attended by 
eight students, who under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Wade, 
aided by the native teachers, pursued the study of Burman and 
Karen with the most gratifying success. 

In addition to their duties at the school, Mr. and Mrs. Wade 
made an excursion to Ohio in the autumn of 1833, and attended 
a large convention of the Baptists of the Western States at Cin- 
cinnati; and in the following spring they travelled with the 
corresponding secretary of the Board to Georgia, and visited 
in the course of their journey most of the cities of the Atlantic 
States. At Augusta, in Georgia, they met the Rev. Evan Jones 
of the Cherokee Mission, and with him two converted Chero- 
kees, who were also ordained ministers, and who were now pre- 
sented to the Burman and the Karen. The spectacle was one 
of rare and extraordinary interest. It was the first time in the 
history of the world that representatives of these ancient aborig- 



LARGE REINFORCEMENT OF THE MISSION. 131 

inal races, dwelling on opposite sides of the globe, had met 
together in the sympathies of a common faith, and joined in 
common acts of Christian worship, — a beautiful emblem of the 
Christian church, uniting in its wide embrace people of every 
tribe and kindred and tongue under the whole heaven. 

The visit of Mr. and Mrs. Wade to their native land, though 
productive of temporary interruptions in the immediate labors 
and plans of the mission, was attended with many most benefi- 
cial results, which were seen in the deeper interest and the 
larger contributions of the churches. They were welcomed by 
their brethren in America as persons who had suffered much in 
the cause of Christian truth, and by whose labors many heathen 
had been turned to righteousness ; and the two native converts 
who were with them — the first who had visited this country 
from the East — were every where regarded with the utmost 
interest. Their presence placed near at hand the distant scenes 
of missionary labor ; their simple-hearted piety and correct 
Christian views won the admiration of all who saw them, and 
rendered more earnest the desires of American Christians to 
give the gospel to the entire nations to which they respectively 
belonged. 

The missionaries, with their interesting companions, sailed 
• from Boston on the 2d of July, 1834; and with them Rev. Messrs. 
Howard, Vinton, Dean, and Comstock, and Mr. Osgood, a print- 
er, with their wives, and Miss Ann P. Gardner, a member of 
Mr. Wade's family, who was to be employed as a teacher, — in all 
fifteen persons ; by far the largest missionary company which 
had ever embarked under the auspices of the Board. They 
were all destined for the Burman and Karen mission, with 
the exception of Mr. Dean, who had been assigned to the 
mission in Siam. The ship, thus freighted with messengers of 
mercy to the heathen, arrived safely at Amherst, December 8th, 
1834 ; and the missionaries, more fully acquainted with the lan- 
guage and customs of the country than any who had preceded 
them, entered immediately upon the labors that awaited them 
at the several stations to which they had been assigned. 



132 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

In August, 1834, Miss Sarah Cummings, the only missionary 
occupant of the station at Chumruerah, died at Maulmain of a 
fever which she had taken in the jungle. Her brief career was 
one of singular zeal and devotion to the service of the mission. 
Soon after her arrival, before she had acquired the language, 
taking with her the Burman teacher whom she had engaged, 
she went out to occupy the secluded station which had then just 
been planted in the wilderness. Here, at a distance of sixty 
miles from the nearest habitation of civilized men, she dwelt 
alone for a year and a half, studying the language, superintend- 
ing the school, and, even before she could converse with the 
people about her, by her presence and activity winning their 
confidence, and imparting energy and order to all the operations 
of the station. When seized with the fever that prevailed in 
the jungle she hastened to Maulmain, where she died amidst 
the tender assiduities and affectionate watchings of the mission- 
aries, — a victim, it may be apprehended, to the self-sacrificing 
though unguarded zeal which led her to this comfortless and 
unhealthy out-post of the mission. 

After her death, the Christians at Chummerah were long 
without a teacher, except the native assistants who dwelt 
among them. They were once visited, for a brief season, by 
Mr. and Mrs. Yinton; but in 1836, in accordance with the 
habits of their race, they abandoned the town and scattered 
themselves among the villages of the district, settling princi- 
pally at the village of Ko Chet-thing, where they have contin- 
ued to reside with greater contentment and more gratifying 
social improvement. 



MEETING OF THE CONVENTION AT RICHMOND. 133 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Meeting of the Convention at Eichmond in 1835. — Rev. H. Malcom visits 
the Missions. — Comparative Results among the Burmans and among the 
Karens. — Modes of Life and of Labor adopted by the Missionaries. — Mul- 
tiplication of Schools. — Theological School at Tavoy and at Maulmain. — 
Growth of the Karen Mission in British Burmah. — Agency of the Press. — 
Station at Dongyahn. — State of the Mission in Burmah Proper. — Persecu- 
tion at Rangoon. — Arrival of Messrs. Vinton, Abbott, and Howard at Ran- 
goon. — Mr. Kincaid at Ava. — His attempt to visit the Shyan States. — 
Civil War in Burmah. — Missionaries leave the Country. — Return of Messrs. 
Abbott and Kincaid. — Joined by Mr. Simons. — Labors among the Karens. 
— Final Departure of Missionaries from Rangoon in 1840. 

The eighth triennial meeting of the General Convention was 
held at Richmond, Va., on the 29th of April, 1835. No meet- 
ing of this body had before been held so far in the South, and 
its members came together from different portions of the Union, 
with an earnestness of feeling and of hope greater than had 
ever before been exhibited. The extent and variety of the mis- 
sionary labors, and the gratifying results which they had pro- 
duced, were set forth in the report of the Board of Managers, 
and filled the minds of the Convention with the most animating 
and encouraging views of the progress of the cause in which 
they were engaged. The sympathies excited by the occasion 
were strengthened and enlarged by the presence of the Rev. 
Messrs. Cox and Hoby, delegates from the English Baptist 
Union, who had been sent to the Convention for the purpose 
of establishing more intimate relations between the Baptist 
churches and associations in the two countries. The generous 
donations which for several years had been annually made to 
the Convention by the American Bible and Tract Societies, 
to aid in the extension of the gospel, were gratefully acknowl- 
edged in the report of the Managers ; and in the fulness of 
confidence and hope with which the whole body was now 
animated, resolutions were adopted, directing the Board to en- 
13 



134 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

large their operations, and to employ every properly- qualified 
missionary, whose services could be obtained ; and the sum of 
one hundred thousand dollars was mentioned as the anticipated 
revenue for the current year. For reasons which were assign- 
ed in the report, it was determined to increase the number of 
executive officers of the Board, — to associate another secre- 
tary with Rev. Dr. Bolles, who had hitherto performed the 
duties of the office alone. In the following year, the new ar- 
rangement was completed by the election of Rev. Solomon Peck 
as Assistant Secretary. 

The proceedings of the meeting at Richmond, though charac- 
terized by unusual harmony and Christian feeling, were yet 
founded on too sanguine expectations. The Convention reck- 
oned too confidently on its ability to enlarge the field of its 
missionary operations, and a debt which embarrassed the treas- 
ury for many years was the result of its well-meant though 
incautious resolutions. 

In the autumn of 1835, the Board appointed one of their 
number, Rev. Howard Malcom, to visit their missions in Asia, 
in order, by personal observation, to ascertain the condition of 
the several stations, to confer with the missionaries respecting 
their labors, and in general to collect such information pertain- 
ing to missions, as might enable the Board more wisely to dis- 
pense the sacred charities intrusted to their management, and 
more effectually to promote the spread of the gospel among the 
heathen. 

He sailed from the United States in September, 1835, in 
company with fourteen missionaries, male and female, desig- 
nated to the several missions of the Board in Asia. In March, 
1838, he returned to the country, after an absence of two 
years and six months, — during which he journeyed by land 
and by sea more than 53,000 miles. He visited all the mis- 
sions under the direction of the Convention, in Burmah, Arra- 
can, Siam and China, and assisted in planting a new mission 
among the Teloogoos, on the shores of Southern India. He 
also became acquainted with the missionaries of other Chris- 



COMPARATIVE RESULTS. 135 

tian denominations in the East, visited them at their stations, 
and informed himself respecting their different modes of labor 
and their success. The arduous and protracted service attached 
to such a deputation was performed by Mr. Malcom in a man- 
ner that received the approbation of the Board ; and the results 
of his wide and varied observations have been communicated 
to the public in the volumes of " Travels in South Eastern 
Asia " which he has published : — a work written in an ex- 
ceedingly pleasant manner, and filled with valuable information 
concerning the countries in which the missions are established, 
and with striking exemplifications of the results which the 
propagation of the gospel has already accomplished, and is 
destined yet to accomplish among the heathen. 

On the return of Mr. Malcom, in 1838, he was elected 
Financial Secretary of the Board. Mr. Peck was at the same 
time elected the Corresponding Secretary for the Foreign De- 
partment, and Dr. Bolles, the senior Secretary, was assigned 
to what was now denominated the Home Department, of the 
executive arrangements of the Convention. 

Though the mission in Burmah has accomplished results of 
the most gratifying character, yet the narrative contained in the 
foregoing pages fully shows that these results have not been such 
as were originally anticipated by its founders and friends. They 
had in view the Burman people, but it is not upon them that 
the mission has bestowed its greatest blessings. Though it 
has not at any time wholly failed of its primal design, it has 
lately won its noblest and most signal triumphs, not among the 
Burmans, but among the obscure and oppressed Karens, — a 
down-trodden and subjugated race, of whose existence even, the 
missionaries were scarcely aware when they first landed in the 
country. These simple dwellers in the mountains and jungles 
of Burmah, coming forth timorously from the obscurity in which 
they hid themselves, listened to the message of the missionary, 
and received it gladly, as the realization of the predictions which 
had descended from the prophets of an elder age. From village 
to village the tidings had been carried, either by the visits of the 



136 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

teacher or his disciples, or by the vague rumor of the wander- 
ing Karens, till hundreds of them had received the gospel and 
been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ ; — while their 
Burman oppressors turned haughtily away, and clung with 
greater tenacity to the absurd dogmas of their atheistic idolatry. 
At each of the principal stations were now several missionaries 
entirely devoted to the instruction and care of the Karens. 
The converts from among them were gathered in separate 
churches, separate schools were established for their instruction, 
and their hitherto unwritten language required peculiar and 
special study, with types and printing arrangements quite dis- 
tinct from those of the Burman tongue. It was found to exist 
in two dialects, having many roots in common, though differ- 
ing in construction, and spoken by two separate divisions of 
the race — the Sgaus and Pghos or Pwos. Mr. Wade, be- 
fore his visit to the United States, had reduced to writing the 
former of these dialects, and on his return he performed the 
same work for the dialect of the Pwos, and, assisted by Mr. 
and Mrs. Mason, commenced the preparation of tracts and the 
translation of portions of the Bible in both these languages. 
The Burman character, with some modifications, was preferred 
by Mr. Wade in writing and printing Karen, though the E-oman 
letters have been recommended by many considerations, and 
have often been adopted by other missionaries in the reduction 
of oriental tongues. 

The modes of life and of labor adopted by the members of the 
mission at this period, were such as were forced upon them by 
the circumstances of their situation, and the nature of the ob- 
jects they aimed to accomplish. Year followed year, compara- 
tively without striking events, yet each bringing with it new 
interests to be cared for, new labors to be performed, and new 
difficulties to be overcome. The routine of duties to which the 
missionaries were principally devoted still consisted in preach- 
ing through the cities and villages, in superintending the schools 
which were now becoming numerous and important, in trans- 
lating the Scriptures and preparing books for the people, and in 



EXTENSION OF THE MISSION AMONG THE KARENS. 137 

directing the operations of the several presses under their charge. 
During the rainy months of the year they were restricted to the 
cities and large towns in which the principal stations were es- 
tablished, and there they were constantly engaged in the labors 
mentioned above. But around each of these stations were clus- 
tered, at various distances, out-stations and Christian villages, at 
which churches and schools had been established, and placed under 
the immediate care of the native assistants and pastors. So soon 
as the wet season was ended, they left their homes and went 
forth to the distant settlements that skirted the field of their 
operations, — travelling in litters or on foot far across the jungle, 
or embarking in boats upon the winding river, to meet the Chris- 
tian congregations, who, with their native pastors, were awaiting 
the annual visit of the missionary. His arrival was every where 
hailed with gratitude and joy. He examined the converts who 
were ready for baptism, and often administered to them the sa- 
cred rite ; he instructed the pastors and their flocks in the true 
discipline of a church, and in the doctrines and ordinances of 
the gospel ; corrected their errors, settled their doubts, strength- 
ened their principles and their hopes, and thus built them up in 
the faith of the gospel. 

Every journey thus made by the missionaries would usually 
lead to the establishment of additional out-stations, and to the 
wider extension of the field embraced by the mission. The 
journals in which the incidents of these itineracies are recorded, 
can alone set forth the proofs which were constantly presented 
of the wide extent to which the spirit of religious inquiry had 
now spread among the settlements of the Karens. "Wherever 
the missionaries went, they found that tidings of the faith they 
taught had gone before them, and they seldom entered a district, 
however remote or untravelled, in which there were not some 
who professed to be worshippers of the living God. The obser- 
vations and facts recorded at this period in the journals of Mr. 
Vinton at Maulmain, of Messrs. Wade and Mason at Tavoy, 
and especially of Messrs. Webb, Abbott and Howard, in their 
excursions from Eangoon to the out-stations of Bassein, Pan- 
13* 



138 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

tanau and Maubee, .are sufficient of themselves to show how 
far from being in vain had been -the vicissitudes of labor and 
peril, of sorrow and trial, through which the mission had passed. 
Schools were established almost at the commencement of the 
mission at each of the principal, and at several of the minor 
stations. The care of these at first devolved to a great extent 
upon the female missionaries, whose first aim was to train up 
pupils of superior talents and energy, to become assistants and 
at length teachers in the schools. Their number and their im- 
portance had been constantly increasing. The regular day 
schools at Tavoy and Maulmain were now in part supported by 
allowances from the East India Company, and the instructions 
given in them were no longer confined to the simplest rudi- 
ments of knowledge, but comprised the study of English and 
of the languages of the country, together with arithmetic, geog- 
raphy and other common branches of education. Several 
boarding schools were opened, for both Bnrmans and Karens 
who came from a distance in the interior, in which the pupils 
were under the constant care of the missionaries. In the 
schools supported by the government, the direct teaching of 
Christianity was not sanctioned by the colonial officers who had 
them in charge ; but in the other schools, and especially in the 
boarding schools, it formed of course a part of the system of 
instruction, and exerted the happiest influences upon the char- 
acters of the pupils. Thus by the lessons of science as well as 
by the teachings of religion, did the missionaries seek to reclaim 
the minds of the young from the vain superstitions of their fa- 
thers, and to direct them to the beautiful forms of Christian 
truth. Many of the pupils of the Karen schools have been con- 
verted to Christianity ; and the faith of many more in the doc- 
trines of Gaudama must have been irrecoverably shaken. 

In addition to the schools above mentioned, a seminary was 
established at Tavoy in 1836, for instructing native converts of 
suitable talents and characters, in the doctrines of Christianity, 
in order that they might thus prepare to preach the gospel to 
their countrymen. It was placed at first under the charge of 



THE PEGUANS. 139 

Mr. Wade, and commenced in May with eighteen pupils, — of 
whom twelve were Karens, five were Burmans and Peguans, 
and one was a Hindoo. The first session closed in July, when 
the students were subjected to an examination in the portions 
of the Bible in which they had been instructed. In 1837, Mr. 
Wade's health was again seriously impaired, and at the close of 
the year the school at Tavoy was suspended. The Burman 
pupils attached to it were removed to Maulmain, — where, in 
1838, a school especially for Burmans was established and 
placed under the charge of Rev. Edward A. Stevens, a young 
missionary whose education had been conducted with special 
reference to this department of labor. 

So marked is the difference of races in Burmah that it has 
generally been found expedient to have separate schools, and as 
far as possible separate churches, for each of the different races 
to whom the labors of the mission have extended. Schools have 
accordingly been established at the principal stations, for the 
Burmans, the Karens, the Eurasians, or half-castes, and the 
Peguans* or Talings. These last are a people entirely distinct 
from the Burmans in every thing but religion. They are the 
feeble remnants of a race that once subdued and overran the 
country, but who were soon driven back by the Burmans under 
Alompra, the founder of the present dynasty. They are very 
numerous in the neighborhood of Maulmain and Amherst, and 
at the latter place a station, designed especially for them, was 
planted in 1836, and placed under the charge of Rev. Mr. Has- 
well. Before this time, the Peguans had often awakened the 
interest of the missionaries, as they saw them mingled with the 
congregations of Burmans or Karens to whom they preached 
in the zayat or the chapel, and attempts had been repeatedly 
made to master their language. Mrs. Judson, after her removal 
to Maulmain, with characteristic energy and zeal devoted her- 
self to its acquisition, and translated and caused to be published 



* See Memoir of Mrs. Sarah B. Judson, chap. 12. Dr. Malcom estimates 
the number of the Peguans in Burmah at 70,000. 



140 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

in Peguan several tracts, her own compilations of the Life of 
Christ, and a considerable portion of the New Testament. On 
the arrival of Mr. Haswell, she surrendered to him her labor 
and the fruits it was already promising, and returned to the 
appropriate duties of her own station, having performed a task 
of great difficulty and importance which no other member of 
the mission was then able to accomplish. 

Nearly every year had witnessed the enlargement of the 
means of multiplying copies of the Scriptures, and other books, 
which the missionaries prepared for the instruction of the peo- 
ple. The books used by the Karens and the Peguans at first 
were in manuscript ; but by the close of 1837 fonts of type 
were prepared in each of the Karen dialects, and thousands of 
copies of books for learning the Karen and Peguan languages, 
as well as of tracts and portions of the Scriptures, were imme- 
diately published. The printing operations were carried on 
principally at Maulmain, though many of the Karen books were 
printed at Tavoy, and a press had been established at Rangoon, 
and one at Ava. In 1838 four new presses were added to the 
station at Maulmain and one to that at Tavoy, making ten in 
all connected with the mission, together with a very large supply 
of materials for printing.* The natives speaking the several 
languages soon acquired the art of printing them, and were 
successfully employed by the missionaries in the labors of the 
press. Societies were also formed at Tavoy and at Maulmain, 
which received contributions from the converts, both native 
and English, and from English officers resident in those cities ; 
and by their agency tracts were printed and distributed, and 
the preaching of the gospel was sustained at particular locali- 
ties. Thus did those who had experienced the benefits of the 
mission commence an attempt to defray the expenses of its 
support, and the generous sacrifices they often made bear the 
strongest testimony to its unspeakable value. The society at 

* This number of presses was never in operation at any one time. The 
power press proved useless, and two of the others were early removed to 
Assam. 



DONG-YAHN. 141 

Tavoy, in 1839, supported from its own treasury not less than 
thirteen native preachers, and also defrayed^ the expenses of 
several of the Karen schools. 

At the distance of thirty-five miles from Maulmain was the 
out-station of Dong-yahn, the solitary residence of Miss Eleanor 
Macomber, whose devoted and useful labors and early death 
deserve to be recorded among the events of this period. She 
entered upon the station in December, 1836, and found the peo- 
ple, who were Pwo Karens, the slaves of intemperance and of 
all the disgusting vices of heathenism. With the aid of two or 
three native assistants, she maintained public worship on the 
Sabbath, and morning and evening prayers at her own dwell- 
ing ; and also opened a school, which soon numbered ten or 
twelve pupils. Before the close of the first dry season she had 
the happiness of seeing twelve Karens baptized and formed 
into a Christian church. She spent the period of the rains 
from May to September at Maulmain, and on her return to the 
jungle found the church and the schools prospering under the 
charge of the native preachers. The little church was soon 
committed to the care of Rev. Mr. Stevens, of the Theological 
School, and was occasionally visited by other missionaries from 
Maulmain. Amidst the prejudices and the occasional persecu- 
tion of the priests and the votaries of Buddhism, the gospel 
continued to spread among the people ; and Dong-yahn, by the 
instrumentality of this indefatigable lady, soon became the seat 
of a flourishing station, and the centre of religious light and 
knowledge to a wide region crowded with benighted Karens. 
Her influence upon her own sex was very extraordinary, and 
its results were visible in numerous dwellings among the vil- 
lages of the jungle. But her missionary career was destined 
to be brought to an early close. She died after an illness of a 
few days, on the 16th of April, 1840, just as the fruits of her 
labors were beginning to adorn and cheer the secluded spot 
which she had chosen for cultivation, — leaving behind her a 
name and a memory which will long be gratefully cherished by 



142 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the rude dwellers in the wilderness whom she was the first to 
instruct in the gospel of Christ. 

As we turn to trace the history of the missionaries who were 
at this time stationed in Burmah Proper, we meet with scenes 
widely different from the quiet and uniform progress that 
marked the stations beneath the protection of the British flag. 
Their labors were constantly exposed to interruption from the 
caprices of jealous rulers or the violence of ' contending factions, 
while the few who ventured to profess themselves disciples of 
Christ were visited with the opposition of their friends, and 
with all the evils incident to a corrupt public sentiment. In 
1835, a persecution of the most violent character broke out at 
Rangoon. It was commenced by some of the petty magistrates, 
who had long viewed with jealousy the labors of the native 
assistants as they were employed in preaching and distributing 
books and tracts in and around the city. The chief object of 
their hostility was Ko San-Lone, a man of superior intelligence 
and piety, and of great boldness and activity in the service of 
the mission. He was one of the three native assistants who 
had accompanied Mr. Kincaid to Ava, and since his return had 
been, with Ko Thah-a, the pastor of the church, almost the only 
Christian who dared to distribute books, or lift up his voice 
for God beneath the frowning despotism of Rangoon. On the 
25th of February, the violence, which had long been threaten- 
ing, broke out against him. He was seized and sent to the 
prison, where he was beaten, loaded with irons, and subjected 
to severe and ignominious labor. His heroic Christian faith 
quailed not before this storm of persecution, and his character 
continued to shine brightly amidst the clouds that lowered 
around him. Before the tribunal of cruel magistrates, beneath 
the lashes of his persecutors or in the felons' dungeon in which 
he was immured, he still bore himself with the meek fortitude 
of a martyr to the truth. Though repeatedly threatened with 
death unless he would abjure his religion and worship Gauda- 
ma, he still trusted, without faltering, in the God he served, and 
presented a noble exemplification of Christian character. After 



PERSECUTION AT RANGOON. 143 

nearly a fortnight's detention he was released from prison, but 
his entire property was confiscated and he was forbidden by the 
woongyee to resume his labors as assistant in the mission. He 
died soon after, much lamented by the missionaries with whom 
he had been associated. 

Nearly every Christian in Rangoon was subjected to fines or 
to imprisonment, in the course of this attempt to extinguish by 
violence the new religion taught by the missionaries. Nor was 
the persecution confined to the city. Preaching excursions had 
been made into the neighboring district of Maubee, and along 
a stream known as the Karen Brook, and the number of Karen 
converts thus made, and now living scattered through the coun- 
try, far exceeded that of the Burman Christians of Rangoon. 
These were all visited with fines and arrests, and officers went 
through the villages to collect by force the heavy assessments 
which had been laid upon all who refused to worship Nats, and 
to acknowledge Gaudama. The persecuted Christians fled in 
every direction to escape the exactions of their oppressors ; but 
they bore with them the faith they cherished, and preached the 
gospel as they went in regions w T here it was before unknown. 
Ko Thah-byu, the pastor of Maubee, with a portion of his flock, 
was soon found in Pegu telling the story of the cross, and 
teaching the precepts of Christ among the numerous popula- 
tion of that hitherto unvisited district. 

The first effect of the persecution at Rangoon was wholly to 
suspend the operations of the mission. Not a Burman or a 
Karen for a time dared to appear as a worshipper at the veran- 
dah, and with a few exceptions, none ventured even to visit the 
missionaries or to perform for them the commonest services of 
life. The alarm, however, was not then of long continuance, 
and the families attached to the mission continued to reside in 
the city and to prosecute their labors, often with encouraging 
success, until subsequent events compelled them to abandon the 
station. 

In October, 1836, Mr. Vinton arrived at Rangoon from Maul- 
main. He was accompanied by the two native preachers, Ko 



144 MISSIONS IN BUKMAH. 

Chet-thing and Ko Taunah. As the open opposition to the labors 
of the missionaries had subsided, an excursion was undertaken 
by Messrs. Vinton, Abbott and Howard, up the Irrawaddy and 
into the district of the Maubee Karens. They met with a large 
number who, in spite of the persecution which had scarcely yet 
died away, had embraced Christianity, and had long been wait- 
ing for the visit of a missionary that they might be baptized. 
In the course of their journey they administered the sacred 
ordinance to one hundred and seventy-three, ninety-two males 
and eighty-one females, nearly all of whom had received the 
gospel from the preaching of their indefatigable countryman, Ko 
Thah-byu. Of the persons baptized, eleven were head men of 
villages or chiefs of small districts, and many of them had been 
worshippers of God for two, three and four years. It was sup- 
posed that not less than a hundred more were scattered over 
the jungle, who had in like manner embraced Christianity and 
were waiting to receive baptism. The Karens in and around 
Rangoon evinced the utmost eagerness to be instructed in the 
truths of the gospel, and though closely watched by the Buddh- 
ist priests and forbidden the use of books, yet several hundreds 
of them learned to read at their own dwellings, away from the 
observation of their Burman rulers. These incidents occurring 
unexpectedly in the wilderness, awakened anew the most glow- 
ing hopes respecting the Karens, and satisfied the missionaries 
that even beneath the oppressive rule that crushed them to the 
earth in Burmah Proper, they were still a people whom God 
had chosen to bless with a knowledge of himself. 

Nor were the missionaries at Ava suffered to prosecute their 
labors without frequent interruptions, dictated now by the jeal- 
ousy of the priests, and now by the factious violence of rival ru- 
lers. Messrs. Cutter and Brown, who had been associated with 
Mr. Kincaid in the management of the station, returned to Ran- 
goon in the spring of 1835, taking with them the press, but leav- 
ing behind a large collection of books and tracts which had been 
printed at the capital. Mr. Kincaid was joined in the autumn 
of the following year by Mr. and Mrs. Simons, and early in Jan- 



MR. KINCAID S NORTHERN EXCURSION. 145 

uary, 1837. by Mr. and Mrs. Webb, who brought with them addi- 
tional supplies of printed works for the use of the station. No 
place in the empire furnished to the missionary such oiDportuni- 
ties for disseminating a knowledge of the gospel, as did Ava. 
Being the seat of the Golden Presence, and the centre of author- 
ity and interest to a numerous people, it was a place of constant 
resort for persons from every portion of the realm. Hither came 
caravans of merchants to bring the products of every district, 
and hither resorted, with their bands of retainers, the princes of 
distant provinces to settle the questions of state and offer their 
allegiance to the monarch. It is the place where representatives 
of every condition and of every district are accustomed to as- 
semble, so that what is promulgated at Ava is likely to be 
borne abroad in different directions as widely as the Burman 
sway extends. 

Mr. Kincaid had formed the acquaintance of several persons 
who came to the capital in the train of some princes of the 
Shyans, a people occupying the provinces on the northern fron- 
tiers of Burmah. In his intercourse with them he inquired 
carefully concerning the position of their country and its conti- 
guity to China, and conceived that by pursuing a route in that 
direction a missionary might not only introduce the gospel to 
the Shyans, but also obtain access to the Chinese. For the 
purpose of ascertaining the correctness of his views, and of be- 
coming acquainted with the crowded population of the northern 
provinces, he formed the design of an excursion to the frontiers 
of Assam. The design having been approved by his brethren 
of the mission he obtained permission of the government, though 
with great difficulty and after many delays, to travel through the 
provinces of the north. On the 27th of January, he embarked 
on the Irrawaddy, with four native Christians for his attendants, in 
a boat which was despatched in his charge, on the public service, 
by Colonel Burney, the English Resident at Ava. He passed 
through regions of great natural beauty and magnificence, often 
landing at the large towns which lined the banks of the river, 
and after twenty-two days reached Mogaung, a city distant three 
14 



146 MISSIONS IN EURMAH. 

hundred and fifty miles from the capital. Here, beneath the 
shadow of the Himmaleh mountains, he found spreading before 
him the vast wilderness which separates Burmah from Hindos- 
tan, skirted by a territory crowded with people and abounding 
in mines of amber and serpentine stone. He made several ex- 
cursions into the valley around the city, but, finding himself un- 
able to procure either provisions suitable for his journey or men 
to accompany him, he was obliged again to set his face towards 
Ava. A civil war had now broken out, and the country was 
distracted with tumults and filled with hordes of banditti. In 
his passage down the river he was suddenly attacked by one of 
these marauding bands, plundered of every thing in his pos- 
session, and then left to pursue his journey. On the following 
day he was again seized by another band of robbers, who strip- 
ped him of his clothes, bound him with ropes and compelled him 
and his attendants to march with them to their village, where he 
witnessed scenes of heart-rending atrocity among the prisoners 
whom the freebooters had collected. His life was constantly in 
danger ; but with the assistance of a young Kathay who belonged 
to the band and who had been at his house in Ava, he contrived 
to effect his escape, and fleeing to the mountains he found his 
way across a thinly inhabited district to the capital, having 
passed through the greatest perils and escaped assassination only 
by the merciful interpositions of Heaven. 

Mr. Kincaid reached Ava on the 11th of March, and found 
the city filled with alarm, and threatened with all the horrors 
of anarchy and civil war. Prince Tharawaddy had risen against 
his brother the king, dethroned him and sent his officers to 
prison ; and having established himself at Mokesobo, a garrisoned 
city forty-five miles north of Ava, was now investing the capital 
and the neighboring cities with his armies. Colonel Burney, 
the English Resident, put his house in a state of defence, and, in- 
viting the mission families to join his own, was able to keep at a 
distance the marauding parties that desolated the neighborhood, 
and to protect the lives and property of the missionaries. They 
had cherished the hope that the new king, who had the reputa- ' 



KARENS OF SOUTHERN BURMAH. 147 

tion of being liberal in his views, when fairly seated in power 
would look favorably upon their labors. But in this they were 
disappointed. At the first interview which they had with him 
after his accession to the throne, he expressly prohibited the work 
in which they were engaged : " I am now king of Burmah," 
said he, " and am therefore ilia iha na da ya ka, (defender of 
the faith,) and must support the religion of the country. You 
must give away no more of Christ's books." He, however, de- 
clared that he had no objection to scientific books, and invited the 
missionaries to bring a press to Ava and print and circulate 
them. It was the aim of the new king to set aside the treaty of 
Yandabo ; and he informed Colonel Burney that he no longer 
recognized him as English Resident, though he did not wish 
him to leave the capital. The colonel, however, decided to re- 
tire, and the missionaries, apprehending that war might again 
ensue between the English and the new Burman authorities, 
made preparations to accompany him. They left Ava, and the 
little church of twenty-one members which they had planted 
there, on the 17th of June, and arrived at Rangoon on the 6th 
of July. The missionaries stationed at Rangoon had already 
gone to Maulmain, in consequence of the threatening aspect of 
the revolution, and the decrees which had been issued by the 
viceroy of the province. Mr. Kincaid followed them after a 
few weeks ; Mr. Webb repaired to Calcutta in order to take 
passage for America for the recovery of Mrs. Webb's health, 
while Mr. Simons lingered for many months at Rangoon, en- 
gaged in such labors as he was able to perform in the disturbed 
condition of the city and the empire. 

But while the labors of the missionaries among the Burmans 
at Rangoon were thus nearly suspended, among the Karens in 
the neighboring districts they were prosecuted with even un- 
wonted success. In the spring of 1837 Mr. Abbott had again 
come among them, and was now travelling through their villages 
in the districts of Maubee and Pantanau. He every where wit- 
nessed the effects of the oppressive taxation to which they were 
subjected. The names of all the Christians were reported to 



148 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the rulers, and they were fined in many instances so heavily that 
they were obliged to give up their children as slaves, in order 
to satisfy the rapacity of their persecutors. In December, 1837, 
Mr. Abbott went to the province of Bassein, where, with many 
others, a young chief of one of the Karen districts embraced 
Christianity, and evinced the utmost interest in the conversion 
and improvement of his countrymen. He came to Rangoon in 
a few weeks, bringing with him nine of his people who had been 
converted by his agency, and who he desired should learn to 
read, that they might return and instruct the villages from which 
they came. He was a person of unusual intelligence and in- 
terest of character, and seemed to spring at once into a full 
comprehension of the inestimable blessings which Christianity is 
designed to bestow. In August, 1838, several months after- 
wards, he came again to Rangoon to be instructed and to receive 
an additional supply of books for his people. He had already 
accomplished his object, and, in the highest spirits, with his fol- 
lowers all laden with books, he had taken leave of the mission- 
aries, when the whole company were seized by Burman officers, 
loaded with irons, and put in the stocks and in prison. Thence 
they were removed to the great pagoda, where they were 
"offered in sacrifice," as it is called, or sentenced to be per- 
petual slaves — they and their posterity — to the gods. They 
were, however, finally released from the ignominious bondage 
to which they were doomed, by the intervention of the mission- 
aries, and by the exertions of an officer attached to the British 
Residency. Gathering as many of the tracts and books as had 
escaped destruction, they concealed them about their persons 
and returned to their native jungle, where the young chief was 
long engaged in spreading the knowledge of the gospel among 
his countrymen. 

In November, 1838, Messrs. Abbott and Simons, finding that 
the aspect of political affairs was becoming more threatening, 
and still apprehensive of war between the English and the Bur- 
mese, left Rangoon and went to Maulmain. 

In November, 1839, a year after the departure of the mis- 



PIOUS ZEAL OF KAREN CHRISTIANS. 149 

sionaries, Mr. Abbott in company with Mr. Kincaid again visit- 
ed Rangoon. They went at the special invitation of the viceroy 
who had known Mr. Kincaid at Ava, and who, it now appeared, 
was desirous that the American teachers should return in order 
that the people, by seeing them at their usual work, might be 
more fully assured of the public tranquillity. The viceroy re- 
ceived them with great courtesy and invited them to bring their 
families and settle again at Rangoon, assuring them that they 
should be protected from all annoyance and that their condition 
should be made comfortable. This was certainly a new spirit 
to proceed from the viceroy of Rangoon, and was a source of 
great encouragement to the missionaries, although they discov- 
ered, in the feverish condition of the public mind and in the 
fickle policy of the government, many hinderances to the imme- 
diate prosecution of their labors. 

There were at this time upwards of three hundred mem- 
bers of churches, Burmans and Karens, in the city and the 
neighboring districts. These scattered disciples met the mis- 
sionaries with the utmost delight, which was warmly reciproca- 
ted when it was ascertained that they had generally been true 
to their principles amidst innumerable perils, and, with the bless- 
ing of Heaven on their endeavors, had won a multitude of 
others to the faith they cherished. The assistants at Pantanau 
and Maubee gave the most gratifying accounts of the success of 
the gospel in those districts, and the tidings from Bassein showed 
that a work of divine grace had been in constant progress there. 
The young chief had remitted none of his activity in the cause 
of Christ. His house was often visited by large companies of 
his people who came to learn to read, and to hear the gospel ; and 
in that district alone, it was supposed that from six hundred to 
one thousand were now waiting to be baptized. So wonderful 
were the triumphs of the Christian faith in the wilderness of 
Burmah ! Though propagated only by those who themselves 
had just received it and had scarcely learned to read the Gospels 
in which it was contained, though persecuted and despised by 
cruel priests and superstitious despots, it had taken possession 
14* 



150 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

of the hearts of hundreds of Karens, and was beginning to start 
a whole people on a new career of social progress and spiritual 
elevation. 

Messrs. Kincaid and Abbott remained at Rangoon six weeks, 
during which time information was received that the viceroy 
was re-called on account of his liberal treatment of foreigners, 
and that another was already appointed in his place. He soon 
arrived and proved himself to be a man of stern, despotic tem- 
per, which had before manifested itself in frequent acts of cruelty. 
Decrees were immediately issued, designed to put an end to all 
intercourse between the Burmans and foreigners ; and the mis- 
sionaries, despairing of being able either to go up to Ava or to 
engage openly in their work at Rangoon, retired to Maulmain, 
and soon after joined the mission in Arracan. 



CHAPTER XIV. 



The Province of Arracan. — Mr. and Mrs. Comstock settle at Kyouk Phyoo. 

— Arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Hall. — Their early Death. — Messrs. Abbott 
and Kincaid join the Mission. — Mr. Abbott at Sandoway. — Labors among 
the Karens. — Their rapid Conversion to Christianity. — Burrnan Persecu- 
tion of the Christian Karens. — Their Fidelity and its Results. — Sympathy 
of British Residents.— Death of Mrs. Abbott, and Visit of Mr. Abbott to the 
United States. — Mr. Kincaid at Akyab. — The Mountain Chief. — Sad 
Changes in the Mission. — Death of Mr. and Mrs. Comstock. — Progress of 
the Mission in British Burmah from 1840 to 1845 : also in Burmah Proper. 

— Changes in the Board. — Death of Rev. Dr. Bolles. 

The province of Arracan lies upon the eastern shore of the 
Bay of Bengal, and is bounded on the north by Chittagong, on 
the east by the Yoma Mountains, wtiich separate it from Bur- 
mah, while on the south and west it is washed by the waters of 
the bay. It embraces sixteen thousand five hundred square 
miles, and formerly belonged to the Burman empire ; but in 
1826 it was ceded by the treaty of Yandabo to the British East 



PROVINCE OF ARRACAN. 153 

India Company. It is divided into four districts, Akyab, San- 
doway, Aeng and Ramree, — the latter consisting of islands, of 
which the largest is forty miles in length. The province con- 
tains about a thousand villages, and is occupied by a population 
numbering nearly two hundred and fifty thousand, of whom the 
greater part are called Mugs, presenting some peculiarities, 
though undoubtedly of the same general race and speaking the 
same language as the Burmans.* A branch of the mission 
was commenced in Arracan in March, 1835, by Mr. and Mrs. 
Comstock, who established themselves at Kyouk Phyoo, a town 
near the northern extremity of Ramree island. They were 
hospitably received. by Mr. Adams, the Master* Attendant of the 
port ; and, having obtained a suitable dwelling, they soon com- 
menced the distribution of tracts, and conversation with the 
people as far as their knowledge of the language would permit. 
Early in 1836 Mr. Comstock made a journey to the district of 
Aeng, for the purpose of becoming better acquainted with the 
people of the province, as well as of spreading abroad a knoAv- 
ledge of the gospel. His preaching was every where listened 
to with the curiosity which usually characterizes intelligent 
heathen, particularly among the Kyens, a race inhabiting the 
mountains, and resembling the Karens in many features of their 
character and condition. 

On his return to Kyouk Phyoo he established a school, in 
which many of the pupils, as is usual in British Burmah, were 
instructed in English. The English officers resident near the 
station uniformly encouraged the labors of the missionaries, 
and in many instances proved themselves their warm personal 
friends. In December, 1836, the station was visited by Rev. 
Mr. Malcom, and at his instance Mr. Comstock went to Akyab, 
then the residence of Rev. Mr. Fink, of the Serampore Baptist 
Mission, and procured an intelligent Arracan ese convert to act 
as assistant. Two other assistants were subsequently obtained 

* For a full account of this province see " Notes on Arakan, by the late 
Rev. G. S. Comstock," &c, published in the Journal of the American Orien- 
tal Society, Vol. I. No. 3, 1847. 



154 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

from Maulmain, and upon these three subordinate laborers were 
now devolved the principal active operations of the mission. 

In May, 1837, the station was reinforced by the arrival of 
Rev. Levi Hall and Mrs. Hall, whose accession was greeted 
with the liveliest interest and hope. A church was soon after- 
wards organized, which was composed only of the missionaries 
and their native assistants, as none of the natives had yet em- 
braced the Christian faith. Both the newly-arrived missionaries 
however, fell victims to the fever of the country, and died before 
their labors had begun, — Mrs. Hall in July and Mr. Hall in 
September after their arrival. The following year Mr. and 
Mrs. Comstock, in consequence of their own enfeebled health, 
were obliged to spend at Maulmain. In February, 1839, they 
returned to Arracan, accompanied by Rev. Lyman Stilson and 
his wife, who had been designated to the mission before leaving 
the United States. They also took with them four native assist- 
ants ; and, as their former station had proved unhealthy, they 
now established themselves at the city of Ramree, where they 
hoped to find a more salubrious climate than at Kyouk Phyoo. 
The church was removed to the new station, and its number by 
the recent accessions to the mission was increased to eleven 
members. Schools were immediately established, tracts and 
books were circulated in great numbers, and the preaching of 
the gospel was constantly maintained, yet none of the supersti- 
tious natives of the country had thus far been converted to 
Christianity. 

Thus through vicissitude and affliction had the mission in Ar- 
racan been constantly passing for Hve years, when Messrs. Ab- 
bott and Kincaid repaired to the province early in 1840. They 
had been obliged to leave their stations in Burmah Proper, in 
consequence of the opposition which was made to their labors, and 
of the additional persecutions to which the converts to the gos- 
pel were subjected by their continued presence in the country. 
They however were determined still to watch over the fields they 
had left, and so far as possible to maintain a communication — 
Mr. Kincaid with the Burman converts at Ava, and Mr. Abbott 



MR. ABBOTT AT SANDOWAY. 155 

with the scattered Karens in the districts of Bassein and Ran- 
goon. They at first regarded their residence in Arracan as 
only temporary, and were prepared to hasten back to the posts 
they had been compelled to abandon, so soon as the stern 
despotism of the monarch should in any degree relax its 
rigor. After a brief residence with their brethren at Ramree, 
Mr. Kincaid went to Akyab, the largest town in the district 
of that name, where he planted a station for the native Ar- 
racanese ; while Mr. Abbott repaired to Sandoway, a locality 
which he selected as favorably situated for opening a communi- 
cation with the Karens, who dwelt beyond the mountains of Ar- 
racan, in the neighboring districts of Burmah Proper. Here he 
was soon to be the witness of triumphs of the gospel over the 
errors and superstitions of a heathen land, such as the history 
of the Christian church has seldom recorded even on its bright- 
est pages. 

He arrived at Sandoway on the 17th of March, and immedi- 
ately sent two of the assistants who had accompanied him, across 
the mountains, to inform the Karens of the adjacent district of 
Burmah of his arrival and to invite them to visit him. They 
were also directed to find the young men who had studied with 
Mr. Abbott at Rangoon, and to persuade them to come and re- 
sume their studies at Sandoway. The spirit of inquiry had 
been deeply awakened in preceding years, and the tidings that 
the teacher was again within their reach were borne from vil- 
lage to village, and were every where received with enthusi- 
asm. The passes between the two countries were guarded by 
jealous Burmans ; yet, in contempt of watchful rulers and in 
spite of mountain barriers, large companies of Karens found 
their way to the missionary, some asking for baptism, others 
seeking books for their countrymen at home, and others still de- 
siring to remain and study under the direction of Mr. Abbott. In 
this manner came many of the assistants and their converts from 
the regions of Maubee and Pantanau, and even from the vicin- 
ity of Rangoon, from whom he was able to learn the condition of 
the churches which had been planted there, and also the won- 



156 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

derful spread of the gospel among the people. Many of the 
assistants were of the opinion that the number of persons pro- 
fessing to be Christians, in these districts of Burmah Proper, 
could not be less than four thousand. Of those who came to 
Sandoway many were baptized, and the school which Mr. Ab- 
bott opened was soon filled with fifty pupils, of whom the greater 
part had already been or were preparing to become assistants 
in the mission. 

The accounts which he thus received from the native Chris- 
tians whom he had left in Burmah Proper, were generally of 
the most satisfactory character. They had been subjected to 
almost incessant persecution ; but they had borne insult and in- 
jury, fine and imprisonment, with the meek endurance which 
the gospel enjoins, and had firmly kept the faith they had pro- 
fessed in the doctrines and promises of Christianity. They had 
also nobly aimed to communicate it to others ; and through that 
wide region, village after village, which had never heard the 
voice of the missionary, had now received the gospel and be- 
come obedient to its requirements. The Burman magistrates, 
finding the number of Christians becoming so large, often re- 
laxed their severity and said, " Let them worship their God, if 
they psvy their taxes and obey the laws," — a policy which was 
adopted in order to prevent the persecuted Karens from emi- 
grating in a body to the British provinces. 

In January, 1841, Mr. Abbott started on an excursion to 
visit the Karens scattered along the eastern frontier of Arra- 
can. In the course of this journey he met a large number who 
came from the Burman side of the mountains, who told him 
more particularly of the sufferings they had endured for read- 
ing the " white book " and receiving " the religion of the for- 
eigner.^ Their knowledge of the gospel was clear and full, to 
a degree that often awakened the surprise of the missionary ; 
and their desire to be baptized and enrolled among the disciples 
of Christ was unabated by the persecutions they had suffered. 
He was absent nearly a month, and during the time he baptized 
fifty-seven persons — a number which, in addition to those who 



MR. ABBOTT S MISSIONARY TOUR. 157 

had previously received baptism, was by the end of the first 
year of his residence at Sandoway increased to one hundred 
and eighty-four. 

At the beginning of 1842, he made a second visit to the same 
frontier region, where he had now arranged to meet a large 
number of the assistants who were preaching in Bassein and 
other districts of Burmah, and with them such of their converts 
as were ready to receive baptism. At Magezzin, a Christian 
village four days from Sandoway, at which a church had been 
planted the year before, he met several assistants and a num- 
ber of converts who, were awaiting his arrival. Here, in a 
stream many a time before hallowed by the sacred rite, he bap- 
tized twenty-four men from different villages of Burmah, three 
of them from the distant banks of the Irrawaddy north of 
Rangoon. 

At Magezzin, at Oung Kyoung and Sinmah, where churches 
had been planted the year before, the people had already erect- 
ed commodious chapels, and were now maintaining the worship 
of the sanctuary and the institutions of the gospel. In these 
and in other villages where the Christians were numerous, Mr. 
Abbott appointed assistants to watch over them, to preach to 
them, and in all things, save in administering the ordinan- 
ces, to act as pastors of the churches. The persons who 
were thus appointed had long been known to the missionary ; 
they had been his pupils, and had received their views of pasto- 
ral duty and of church discipline from his instructions ; and they 
proved themselves worthy of the confidence he reposed in them. 
Some of them were subsequently ordained, and have since bap- 
tized multitudes of their brethren into the faith of the gospel. 
In this excursion Mr. Abbott was absent thirty-one days, in the 
course of which he received visits from a large number of the 
native preachers from Burmah, visited all the churches that lay 
along the frontier of Arracan, and administered the ordinance of 
baptism to two hundred and seventy-nine persons, who were 
recommended by the assistants as giving satisfactory evidence 
of conversion and of faith in Jesus Christ. 
15 



158 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

But it was not alone in excursions like these, which he made 
at least once every year, that Mr. Abbott witnessed the power 
of the gospel over the hearts of the Karens. They constantly vis- 
ited him at Sandoway, often coming twelve or fifteen days' jour- 
ney, to converse with the teacher, to obtain books, or to receive 
baptism. The school which he had established for their in- 
struction, though at one time broken up by the frightful ravages 
of the cholera, was generally attended by nearly fifty pupils, 
among whom were frequently many of the native assistants, 
who thus spent the intervals of their residence at Sandoway in 
qualifying themselves more fully for their work as preachers 
of the gospel. In this manner he saw the cause to which he 
was devoted every where triumphant, and though obliged to con- 
duct the mission unassisted and alone, he beheld over the fields 
which it occupied a whole people turning to God. Within the 
period of iive years after his arrival in Arracan, the number of 
persons baptized by him, or by the pastors under his charge, was 
upwards of three thousand, — a number considerably larger than 
had then been baptized in connection with all the other missions 
of the Convention taken together.* The greater part of these 
were baptized by the native preachers in Burmah Proper, where, 
in multitudes of cases, without ever having seen the missionary, 
they received the gospel from the heralds whom he had sent, and 
boldly professed their faith in its doctrines in contempt of the 
stern despotism that lowered around them. 

During the winter of 1842 and ? 43, in consequence of a royal 
order which had been issued, to exterminate the " white books " 
and the " religion of the foreigner " from the country, the per- 
secutions of the Christian Karens, which for a time had been 
remitted, were renewed with the utmost cruelty and violence. 
Whole families were seized at their homes, at places of wor- 
ship, or while assembled to hear the reading of the Scriptures ; 
the men were often brutally beaten, w^hile the women, separated 
from their children, were chained together in pairs, and all were 

* In the year 1844 alone, the number baptized by Mr. Abbott and his assist- 
ants was 2,039. 



PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN KARENS. 159 

driven away to a distant prison, where, with no food save such 
as the charity of the heartless Burinans allowed them, they were 
left to drag out a wretched and starving confinement till they 
could satisfy the rapacity of their "persecutors. They were lib- 
erated at length on the payment of nearly six hundred rupees, 
— a fine w r hich in many instances robbed them of their entire 
possessions. Yet they bore their persecutions with heroic forti- 
tude, and when released from imprisonment, refused to promise 
that they would abandon the worship of God. The effect was 
every where most favorable. " The noble, fearless testimony," 
says Mr. Abbott, " which those prisoners bear to the truth, has 
given their cause notoriety and character. The common people 
throughout the country generally look upon the new religion 
with interest at least, and whisper their sympathies with its 
suffering votaries." 

So frequent and violent were the persecutions at this period, 
that the Karens began to flee in great numbers from the ruth- 
less violence which every where, in Burmah Proper, crushed 
them to the earth. They left the harvests of paddy which they 
had gathered, and the fields they could no longer cultivate in 
safety, and fled to the mountains ; and though the passes were 
watched by officers and informers, in order to prevent their 
emigration, yet hundreds of these persecuted Christians escaped 
the jurisdiction of their oppressors, and took refuge in Arra- 
can. During the winter and spring of 1843, Mr. Abbott re- 
cords the arrival of upwards of two hundred emigrant families. 
Whole villages would in this manner cross the mountains, in 
company with their pastors, — bringing with them their buffa- 
loes and the few articles of property which they could move, 
but trusting to providence and the charity of their brethren for 
the supply of their immediate wants. Their condition was often 
pitiable in the extreme, and enlisted the kindliest sympathies 
not only of the missionaries but also of the British residents of 
the province. By Mr. Abbott they were regarded as a part of 
his own scattered flock, and he exerted himself to the utmost 
for the relief of their necessities. He encouraged them in their 



160 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

afflictions, and aided them in forming new villages ; and at his 
instance Captain Phayre, the assistant commissioner of the prov- 
ince, supplied them with food, allowing them a year in which to 
make their payments, without interest. Though thus depend- 
ent on the bounty of strangers, they were now secure in the 
fruits of their own industry. Though they had come to a less 
genial soil, they had gained the priceless privilege of freedom 
to worship God. 

Seldom do the checkered pages of missionary history record 
a more affecting instance of persecution for conscience' sake, 
than that which was thus visited on these simple-hearted, Chris- 
tian Karens. Hunted down like the birds upon their own 
mountains, beaten with stripes, loaded with chains and shut in 
prisons, their infant faith was subjected to trials which that of 
Christians even in the most favored lands might not always 
endure unharmed. Yet they wavered not. They abandoned 
their villages and their cultivated fields. They sacrificed their 
property, they gave up their country and perilled their lives ; 
but they would not resign the faith and doctrines whose power 
they had experienced. They would still worship God, even 
though they were obliged to do it beneath another sky and in a 
strange land. Their ultimate fate lends a still darker hue to 
the melancholy picture of their sufferings. In the summer 
after their arrival, just as they had become settled in their new 
villages, and were beginning to enjoy the blessings of the free- 
dom they had so dearly won, the cholera again laid waste the 
country, and hurried these emigrant Karens by hundreds to the 
grave. In the panic which it created many fled across the 
mountains back to the persecuting land which they had left ; 
while many more, uncared-for and unknown, perished in the 
jungle, victims of the pestilence they sought to escape. 

From the imperfect outline thus given it is possible to form 
but a faint conception of the responsibilities and labors which 
pressed upon the solitary missionary who at this period, from 
behind the mountains of Arracan, conducted the entire opera- 
tions of the mission in Burmah Proper. He was charged not 



MR. ABBOTT S BEREAVEMENTS. 161 

only with the superintendence of a wide missionary district, of 
which the inhabitants with one accord seemed to be turning to 
Christianity, but with the care and instruction of a rising minis- 
try, who were perhaps to form the religious opinions and habits 
of a numerous people, and also with the necessity of deciding the 
questions and settling the interests of infant communities just 
emerging from barbarism, and entering upon a career of social 
progress. His position, as is often true of the missionary, more 
than realized the classic fables that relate the deeds of the early 
civilizers of the human race, — the founders of mythologies, 
the teachers of letters and of arts ; for with the aid of a far 
purer civilization he was shaping the social and religious char- 
acter of a whole people. 

But the task was too great for a single, unassisted individual. 
Aid was earnestly solicited ; but, in the straitened circumstances 
of the Board, it could not be sent. His constitution, though 
naturally strong, was prostrated beneath the labors of his post 5 
and when repeated domestic bereavement added its own poig- 
nant sorrows to the weight of ceaseless responsibility, his health 
was gone, and he was obliged to abandon the work he had at- 
tempted to carry forward. During the summer of 1844, which 
w r as very sickly in the province, he had seen both his children 
swept away by the hand of death, and in the following January 
Mrs. Abbott, after a brief illness, followed them to the tomb.* 
Mr. Abbott, thus broken in health and bereft of the dearest objects 
of his affection, finding himself no longer able to sustain the 
labors of the mission, was soon afterwards obliged to return to 
the United States in order to recruit the energies of his enfee- 
bled constitution. 

We turn now to other scenes of labor and of trial con- 
nected with the mission in Arracan. It was in the month of 
April, 1840, that Mr. Kincaid, as has already been mentioned, 

* Mrs. Abbott was Miss Ann P. Gardner, who joined the mission at Tavoy 
in 1835, on the retnrn of Mr. and Mrs. Wade. She resided at Tavoy, and at 
Matah and other out-stations of the mission, and was married to Mr. Abbott 
in 1837. 

15* 



162 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

commenced the station at Akyab. Here, amidst a population of 
16,000, he found a native church planted many years before by 
the English missionaries, and now numbering thirteen members. 
They had been long without any pastoral guidance or instruc- 
tion, and, amidst the evil influences of heathenism, the doctrines 
of the gospel had well-nigh faded from their minds. The mis- 
sionary, however, assembled them together and immediately 
established religious meetings for their instruction, and soon 
had the happiness of seeing around him a large congregation, 
some of whom were eagerly inquiring respecting the new re- 
ligion. Among these were several persons of superior educa- 
tion and of high standing ; and one especially who several years 
before had been appointed by the king at Ava, on account of 
his attainments, in Buddhist learning, to go to Arracan as a mis- 
sionary, to explain the sacred books to the priests and the people 
of the province. During the first summer of his residence at 
Akyab Mr. Kincaid baptized three native converts, and was 
daily instructing about thirty others, who professed to believe the 
gospel, but in the judgment of the missionary were not sufficiently 
established to receive baptism. The baptism of several persons 
of influence at Akyab called forth a violent opposition from 
many of the priests and their followers. Those who visited the 
missionaries or read their books were obliged to encounter the 
utmost hostility and scorn from their neighbors and friends, and 
were often threatened and sometimes assaulted with actual 
violence. The church gradually increased in spite of all oppo- 
sition, and another was planted at Cruda, an out-station five 
days' journey from Akyab, at which twelve persons were soon 
baptized. 

In May, 1841, Mr. Kincaid was visited by a chief and several 
members of the tribe of Kemmees, a race inhabiting the moun- 
tains, and resembling in habits and appearance the Kyens and 
Karens. He was known as the " mountain chief," and was at 
the head of several subordinate clans and petty chiefs. They 
listened to the conversation of the missionary in the Burman 
tongue, and retired with their barbarian indifference, seemingly 



THE MOUNTAIN CHIEF. 163 

r 

undisturbed by the doctrines which they had heard. After a 
few months, however, Mr. Kincaid received a communication 
signed by " Chetza, the mountain chief," and by thirteen subor- 
dinate chiefs, stating that they had thought of the new religion, 
and that, as their people were ignorant, they desired them. " to 
know the true God and to be taught the true book." The com- 
munication also contained the names of two hundred and sev- 
enty-three children, whom they would place at school if he 
would come to their mountains. The request was repeated a 
little time after, by the principal chief in person, who came to 
the mission house with a large retinue, just as Mr. Kincaid 
and Mr. Stilson were setting out on a journey to the Kemmee 
villages. He hastened back with the utmost joy to prepare for 
their reception. So great was his interest in their visit and so 
strong his desire to have them remain, that when the mission- 
aries arrived, five days after his return, they found to their 
surprise a zayat erected for their accommodation, and supplied 
with many of the articles of comfort which the chief had seen 
only in the mission house at Akyab. 

The Kemmees, like the Karens, though in a far more limited 
sense, seemed to be prepared, by their traditions and their sensi- 
bility to moral truth, to receive the gospel. The chief offered 
to build a house for the permanent residence of the mission- 
aries, but they were unable to remain. A few months after- 
wards, however, Messrs. Kincaid and Stilson, at different dates, 
again visited this mountain people ; and the latter in the course 
of a brief residence studied their language, and finding it almost 
identical with the Kyen which he had already mastered, he par- 
tially reduced its elements to writing.* But the sickness of his 

* This reduction has been carried still further by Mr. Stilson, who has re- 
cently prepared and printed a spelling book and a Christian reading book in 
the language of the Kemmees. They were visited in 1848 by Mr. Ingalls, and 
have found an active friend in Mr. Crawfurd, the English Commissioner in 
Arracan. By him they have been relieved from the tyranny of Burman mag- 
istrates, and a Christian head man, of their own race, has been placed over 
them. Several of them have already embraced Christianity, and as a people 
they now present a most inviting field for missionary labor. 



164 MISSIONS IN BUIiMAH. 

family compelled him to return to Akyab; and from the same 
cause both Mr. and Mrs. Kincaid were required, a few months 
later, to leave their post in the mission and go to Calcutta, and 
afterwards to sail for the United States. Mr. Stilson was thus 
obliged to occupy the station at Akyab, and abandon his design 
of preaching to the mountain chief and his numerous clans ofj 
subject Kernmees, who represented themselves as all ready to 
learn " the wisdom of the true book." 

Still darker clouds, however, were now lowering around the 
mission, and heavier misfortunes were about to befall its inter- 
ests. Mr. and Mrs. Comstock had, since 1840, been living at 
Ramree, with Mr. and Mrs. Stilson for their occasional coadju- 
tors, assiduously engaged in the prosecution of the mission of 
which they were the earliest pioneers. Here, though but few 
had been admitted to the church by baptism, they had witnessed 
many most encouraging indications, and were anticipating still 
other fruits of their labors, when, in the month of April, 1843, 
Mrs. Comstock fell a victim to an epidemic then prevailing in 
the town. Her two children were soon after hurried away by 
the same destroyer ; and at the end of a year, in April, 1844, 
the unfortunate mission was afflicted with the severest loss it 
could sustain, in the death of Mr. Comstock himself. He was 
a missionary of superior education and of the noblest qualities 
of character, and during the nine years of his residence ' in 
Arracan had been distinguished for his wisdom, fidelity, and 
useful labors. In addition to his services in the mission, he had 
nearly completed an elaborate work on the condition of the 
province and its inhabitants, and the changes which had been 
wrought by the missionaries and the English residents.* He 
died at the age of thirty-five, ere he had reached the meridian 
of his days, just at the period when the mission, already para- 
lyzed by repeated bereavements, seemed most to need the ser- 

* A part of this work has been published in the Journal of the American 
Oriental Society, with the title of "Notes on Arakan," and in the American 
Baptist Missionary Magazine, vol. xxvii, p. 375, and has been already referred 
to on a preceding page. 



MISSIONS IN THE TENASSEKIM PROVINCES. 165 

vices and the counsels which his sound discretion and long ex- 
perience so well fitted him to bestow. 

Thus, one after another, had the missionaries of Arracan dis- 
appeared from the fields of their labor, until, at the beginning 
of 1845, Mr. and Mrs. Stilson found themselves alone, in the 
entire province, — the solitary conductors of a mission which had 
created the highest interest, and which still needed only addi- 
tional laborers to insure for it the noblest results. 

The two principal stations of the mission in the Tennasserim 
provinces were at Maulmain and at Tavoy. These had now 
become so extensive and had spread their branches so widely 
from the central location, as henceforth to be designated in the 
reports of the Board as independent missions. At Maulmain 
there were residing in 1840, Messrs. Judson, Howard, Stevens, 
Osgood and Simons, in connection with the Burman department, 
and Mr. Vinton, in connection with the Karen department of 
the mission. The wives of the missionaries were usually ac- 
tively employed in the schools, some for the Karens and others 
for the Burmans. At Amherst was a secondary station, at which 
Mr. Haswell was still engaged in preaching to the Talings, or 
Peguans, in translating the New Testament into their language, 
and superintending the schools which with Mrs. Haswell he had 
established among thfem. Around Maulmain were now seven 
other subordinate stations, all for the Karens, which were under 
the charge of native assistants, though visited by the missiona- 
ries at least once during every dry season. The number of 
churches thus connected with what was now called the Maulmain 
Mission, was seven, containing in all four hundred and fifty-four 
members. 

At Tavoy, though there was a small Burman church, yet the 
missionaries were almost exclusively devoted to labors among 
the Karen population. There were now dwelling there only 
Messrs. Wade and Mason with their wives ; Mr. and Mrs. Ben- 
nett being absent on a visit to the iJnited States, and Mr. and 
Mrs. Hancock having been recently obliged to abandon the mis- 
sion. Around Tavoy were eight out-stations, all of them having 



166 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

churches whose members now numbered four hundred and sev- 
enty-three. The church at Matah alone contained three hundred 
and ten. In connection with this mission also was the impor- 
tant station at Mergui, where Mr. Ingalls, a preacher in Burrnan, 
and Mr. Bray ton, a preacher in Pwo Karen, with their wives, 
had been residing since the beginning of 1839. In the vicinity 
of Mergui, and under the care of its missionaries, were also 
eight out-stations with six churches, numbering in all one hun- 
dred and thirty-one members. The most nourishing of these 
stations was at Kabin, whose church now numbered seventy-five 
members. Under the direction of the missionaries at Maulmain 
were thirty native assistants, and seven schools of different 
grades, for a population of several different races ; and in connec- 
tion with the mission at Tavoy were sixteen schools, nearly all 
for Karens, and twenty native assistants. Several of the schools 
and the assistants however, both at Tavoy and at Maulmain, were 
supported by the contributions of missionary societies in these 
cities, or by benevolent individuals residing there. From these 
sources was derived a yearly revenue of from two to three thou- 
sand rupees,* contributed in great part by the English officers 
and residents, but yet in no insignificant degree by the native 
Christians themselves. 

Of the missionaries to the Burmans, Mr. Osgood was mainly 
occupied with the labors of the press and the superintendence 
of the financial concerns of the mission. Mr. Stevens, in addi- 
tion to his charge of the theological school, was pastor of the 
church of Pwo Karens at Dong-yahn, and in connection with 
Mr. Simons and Mr. Howard, who had charge of the other 
schools at Maulmain, preached in the chapel of the English 
church, which was composed of soldiers of the regiment sta- 
tioned there. Dr. Judson, though in enfeebled health, still de- 
voted his principal attention to a careful revision of the Burman 
Bible, preached once on a Sabbath — all that his strength would 

* In the year ending July 1, 1845, the Maulmain Society alone contributed 
to the mission upwards of six thousand rupees, nearly two thousand nine hun 
dred dollars. 



REVISION OF THE" BURMAN BIBLE. 167 

allow — to the Burman church, and superintended the labors 
of the preaching assistants, who were employed among the Bur- 
man population of the town and the neighboring villages. This 
disposition of their labors left not a single missionary free from 
other engagements, and able to give his undivided attention to 
the work of preaching to the Burmans. 

The Karen missionaries, both at Maulmain and at Tavoy, 
though having schools and the preparation of books constantly 
in charge, were yet able, from the circumstances in which they 
were placed and the character of the people to whom they 
ministered, to bestow a larger portion of their time and atten- 
tion upon their chosen work of preaching the gospel; and, 
according to the plan which has been already explained, they 
spent the dry season of each year abroad among the villages and 
churches of the jungle ; while in the rainy season they resided in 
town, teaching at the schools, writing for the press, and preaching 
on the Sabbath and on other stated days of every week. This 
constant proclamation of the gospel by the preacher's own voice 
is undoubtedly the instrumentality which, before all others, is 
most blessed of Heaven for the conversion and religious in- 
struction of mankind ; and the fact has been singularly illustrated 
in every years experience of the mission to the Karens. 

Of the revision of the Burman Bible, which had long en- 
grossed his attention, Dr. Judson remarks that it cost him more 
time and labor than the first translation. In prosecuting the 
task he availed himself of the latest and best works of biblical 
criticism, and spared no pains in selecting and incorporating in 
the new edition the most approved results of the labors of Eu- 
ropean and American philologists. Seldom, we may well be- 
lieve, has a translation of the word of God been accomplished 
with greater fidelity, or in a manner better fitted to bring the 
unadulterated truth of revelation in contact with the mind of a 
numerous people. Hitherto they have despised and rejected it ; 
but the day is not distant when they will receive it as a most 
precious gift, and write the name of the venerable translator 
among those of their most honored benefactors. The last sheet 



168 MISSIONS IN BURMAII. 

of the revised translation was committed to the press in October, 
1840 ; and a few months after its completion Dr. Judson, finding 
his health seriously impaired, made a voyage with his family to 
the Isle of France. He was absent nearly a year, and returned 
with renewed strength in December, 1841, and soon after enter- 
ed upon a work which he had long been meditating, — the prep- 
aration of a Dictionary in English and Burmese, for the purpose 
of facilitating the acquisition of both these languages. It was 
undertaken in accordance with the repeated request of the 
Board, and at the instance of missionaries and others who had 
encountered the difficulties usually presented, especially in ac- 
quiring the Burman tongue. 

The Burman Theological School at Maulmain, whose mem- 
bers had always been less numerous than was anticipated at its 
commencement, was suspended at the close of its session in 1841, 
in consequence in part of the small number of its pupils, but 
more especially on account of the limited finances of the mis- 
sion ; and from this cause several other schools were also clbsed 
at the same time. The Theological School was reopened in the 
summer of 1844, but with only six Burman candidates for the 
ministry. During the interval in which the school was sus- 
pended Mr. Stevens, in addition to his other duties, devoted him- 
self to editing a monthly journal in Burmese, designed especially 
for the native Christians. It was found to subserve an impor- 
tant purpose in exciting the interest of the people and diffusing 
valuable information, and is still continued under the title of the 
" Religious Herald." A similar journal, the " Morning Star," 
was commenced for the Karens at Tavoy, in 1843, and has 
been sustained with equal benefit. 

But amidst these efforts of unwearied zeal, and this ceaseless 
employment of learning and ability, of labor and money, in the 
Burman department of the mission, the people for whom they 
were all designed, it must still be confessed, continued to reject 
Christianity, and to cling with their wonted tenacity to the su-= 
perstitions which enslaved them. The Karens on the contrary, 
though furnished with less exnensive means of instruction.,, 



A KAREN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY. 169 

were still accepting the gospel ; and in city and jungle, in the 
valleys and on the mountains, throughout the provinces of 
Tenasserim, were now to be met Christian families growing in 
the knowledge of the truth, and making constant progress in the 
kindly charities and domestic comforts of civilized life. The 
officers of the East India Company every where favored the 
arrangements which were adopted for their social advancement, 
by protecting them from molestation and injustice, and appoint- 
ing their more intelligent chiefs to petty offices in the govern- 
ment of the country. Under the influence of the efforts which 
were thus made, and of the freedom which they enjoyed, their 
progress in industry, temperance, neatness and thrift was very 
remarkable. The entire New Testament was not printed in 
their language till near the close of 1843 ; yet long before this 
time, their churches had become so numerous in many districts 
of British Burmah, as far to transcend the ability of the 
missionaries to give them the attention and the instruction which 
they required. Both the churches and the schools that were 
connected with them were of necessity left almost entirely to 
the care of assistants who, though the best that could be se- 
lected, yet themselves often required scarcely less instruction 
and supervision than their pupils and flocks. 

The need of a seminary, especially for the training of preach- 
ers for the Karens, had now become most urgent, and was 
strongly set forth in all the communications of the missionaries. 
Classes of native assistants had been formed at different periods 
and instructed by Mr. Abbott at Sandoway, by Mr. Vinton at 
Maulmain, and by Mr. Mason and others at Tavoy. But with the 
numerous other duties constantly pressing upon these missionaries, 
little could be done for the theological education of the assistants ; 
and many of them had entered upon their labors with no more 
knowledge of letters than they had been able to obtain in six 
months' or a year's residence at school. These men, amidst all the 
imperfections of their training, proved themselves faithful, labo- 
rious and successful ; yet they were destitute of the knowledge 
and discipline, the energy and judgment, which mental training 
16 



170 MISSIONS IN JBURMAH. 

alone can give, and which are indispensable in forming the 
Christian character of a people just learning their first lessons of 
the gospel. 

These views were fully presented to the Board at its meeting 
in 1843, and though its treasury was still embarrassed, it was 
determined immediately to attempt to supply this most pressing 
necessity. In resolutions, which w r ere then adopted, the Acting 
Board were instructed a to direct special attention to the work 
of diffusing among the Karens the blessings of education, and to 
take immediate measures to furnish the native assistants among 
that people with such theological education as will enable them 
most successfully to preach the gospel among the heathen." In 
these circumstances the Acting Board, impressed with the ne- 
cessity of having experienced men designated to a service so 
important to all the future interests of the Karen people, imme- 
diately opened a correspondence with the Rev. J. G. Binney, 
pastor of the First Baptist Church in Savannah, Ga., and in- 
vited him to enter the service of the Board as a missionary. 
He yielded to the solicitation, and w r as appointed to the charge 
of the Karen Theological School at Maulmain. At about 
the same time, Rev. E. B. Bullard, pastor of the church in 
Foxborough, Mass., decided to relinquish his parish, and offer 
himself to the Board as a missionary to Burmah. He was most 
readily and thankfully accepted, and appointed to labor as a 
preacher and a translator among the Pwo Karens at Dong-yahn 
and its vicinity. They sailed from Boston, with their wives, in 
November, 1843, and with them also Mr. T. S. Ranney, a 
printer, Mrs. Ranney, and Miss Julia A. Lathrop, all appointed 
to reside at Tavoy, and to aid the suffering mission among the 
Karens. These were followed in the succeeding autumn by 
Rev. E. B. Cross, appointed to the charge of the theological 
school at Tavoy, who, with his wife, sailed from Boston in Oc- 
tober, 1844, and arrived at Maulmain in the following February. 

Thus were a portion of the wants of this most interesting 
mission happily supplied ; and though the early return of Miss 
Lathrop, occasioned by her loss of health, and the premature 



KARENS OF MERGUI AND THE SELONGS. 171 

death of Mr. Bullard, have blighted many of the hopes raised 
by this arrival of efficient helpers, yet the labors of the others 
have strengthened the hands of their brethren, and opened a 
brighter prospect to the Karen churches scattered over the jun- 
gle of Burmah. 

A new impulse was also at this time given to the improve- 
ment of the Karens at Mergui, by the very liberal and well- 
directed measures of Major Broadfoot, then just appointed com- 
missioner of the province. He aimed, in all his official acts, to 
raise their race from degradation and servitude, to reward with 
suitable promotion, industry and intelligence, and to awaken 
within them a confidence in themselves and an aspiration for a 
higher and more independent position. The missionaries too 
had the happiness of witnessing the most beneficent results fol- 
lowing from their labors. The churches constantly increased 
in numbers, and the native Christians, beneath the approving 
smile of the government, were assiduous in their endeavors to 
acquire useful knowledge and to form worthy characters. 

Among the islands that line the coast between Mergui and 
Penang were found a singular people, known as the Selongs, 
resembling the Karens, but far more ignorant and degraded, 
and often made the sport and the prey of their more powerful 
neighbors. They were visited several times by Mr. Brayton, 
in 1843, by whom many of them were baptized and formed 
into a church ; and in the following year their peculiar dialect 
was reduced to writing by Mr. Stevens, at the request of Major 
Broadfoot, who contributed a thousand rupees in aid of the 
object, and for the establishment of schools for their instruction. 

In all this time no missionary had resided at Rangoon. Mr. 
Abbott at Sandoway had attempted to maintain a communication 
with the native Christians, but in consequence of the great dis- 
tance and the ceaseless espionage of the government he had not 
been successful. The station was visited by Mr. Yinton in 1842, 
and again in 1844 by the same missionary, in company with 
Messrs. Stevens and Ingalls, — in the latter instance for the 
purpose of deciding on the expediency of reestablishing the 



172 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

mission there. The church was still under the charge of the 
Burman pastor, Ko Thah-a, though languishing in the absence 
of the teachers, and exposed to the combined assaults and evil 
artifices both of Buddhist and of Eoman Catholic priests. Its 
members, however, had remained faithful, though many who 
had formerly met with them at their places of worship had been 
turned by evil influences away from their company. Twelve 
Karens were baptized in one of these visits, and the hopes and 
faith of the little band of Christians were greatly strengthened 
by the sympathy and instructions of the missionaries, who, they 
had been told by their foes, "had taught them a false religion, 
and then abandoned them." It was, however, regarded as still 
inexpedient for them to attempt again, at present, to reside at 
Rangoon, notwithstanding the many evils attendant on their 
absence, and they were compelled reluctantly to withdraw till 
some change should be effected in the cruel and persecuting 
policy adopted by the government. 

In 1842 the health of Rev. Dr. Bolles had become too infirm 
to admit of his discharging all his duties as one of the corres- 
ponding secretaries, an office which he had held since the remov- 
al of the Board to Boston in 1824, and Rev. Robert E. Pattison, 
D. d. was appointed associate secretary, in addition to Rev. Solo- 
mon Peck, who had been appointed in 1835. In September of 
that year, soon after Dr. Pattison had entered upon the duties of 
his office, Dr. Bolles finding his health still declining tendered 
his resignation to the Board. It was accepted by them with the 
sensibility due to his long and faithful services ; and though he 
was released from all official responsibility he was requested 
still to retain his post at the missionary rooms, and to render to 
the other secretaries such aid and counsel as his enfeebled 
health might allow. He, however, soon found it necessary to 
withdraw entirely from all connection with the Board, for the 
malady with which he was afflicted pressed heavily upon him. 
His life's work was done ; and he was waiting but a brief inter- 
val of calm reflection and Christian hope ere he entered upon 
the scenes of a higher existence. After a lingering illness, he 



FINANCIAL EMBARRASSMENT OF THE BOARD. 173 

died at Boston, January 5, 1844, in the sixty-fifth year of his 
age. He had been an officer of the Board for twenty years, 
and for nearly seventeen years had held the office of Correspond- 
ing Secretary. Under his judicious management the enterprise 
of foreign missions had steadily advanced, until it had now be- 
come the most important charity of the Baptist denomination in 
America. His gentle spirit and amiable manners had won 
friends for the cause among all classes of people, — while the 
wise Christian counsels, which went forth in his correspondence 
from the retirement of the secretary's office, had shaped the 
early character of the missions which had been planted in the 
most distant lands. The tributes which have been paid to his 
memory, by those who knew him best, bespeak his exalted 
worth ; but the noblest monument of his life and character is the 
success of the enterprise which he so faithfully labored to 
promote.* 



CHAPTER XV. 



Financial Embarrassment of the Board. — Its Causes. — Question of Slave 
ry. — Correspondence of the Board with the Alabama State Convention. — 
Formation of the Southern Baptist Convention. — American Baptist Mis- 
sionary Union. — Visit of Eev. Dr. Judson to the United States. — His re- 
turn to Burmah with other Missionaries. — Changes in the Missions during 
his Absence. — Executive Officers of the Board. — Return of Mr. Abbott to 
Sandoway. — Karen Converts waiting for Baptism. — Appointment of new 
Missionaries. — Latest Reports from the Missions in Burmah. 

During the entire period whose events we have narrated in 
the foregoing chapter, the treasury was constantly embarrassed 
by the want of sufficient funds, and the action of the Board 
was in consequence straitened and confined. Many *of the mis- 
sions were suffering for the want of reinforcement or from the 

=&For a delineation of the character of Dr. Bolles, and a full record of his 
. services, see a Discourse delivered at his funeral by Rev. Daniel Sharp, d. d. 
Also, American Baptist Missionary Magazine, vol. xxiv, p. 49. 

16* 



174 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

curtailment of their supplies, and some even were on the point 
of being abandoned. This embarrassment arose in part from 
the financial pressure which at that time spread over the whole 
country, and of course curtailed the charities of all classes of 
the people ; but also, and it is to be feared to a still greater 
extent, from the dissensions which had sprung up in different 
portions of the Union respecting the institution of slavery in 
the Southern States. 

The great question whether Christianity sanctions the hold- 
ing of slaves had long been debated through the country and 
was now agitating the entire Christian community. Among 
the Baptists, as well as among several other denominations, it 
was immediately blended with the action of each one of their 
great national societies. Many individuals and a few churches 
in the North had already refused to contribute to the treasury 
of the Convention, alleging as the reason their unwillingness 
to mingle their funds with those derived from the holders of 
slaves. At length the Alabama State Convention addressed to 
the Acting Board a series of resolutions, declaring their views 
concerning their own rights and immunities, and demanding an 
" explicit avowal that slaveholders are eligible and entitled 
equally with non-slaveholders " to any appointments, either as 
agents or as missionaries, in the gift of the Board. To this 
communication the Acting Board replied, that in the principles 
contained in the resolutions they fully concurred, — that all the 
members of the Convention, alike from the South and the North, 
whether slaveholders or not, were unquestionably entitled to 
all the privileges and immunities which the constitution grant- 
ed or permitted ^ — but that the constitution of itself guarantied 
to no one the right to be appointed to any office, agency or 
mission ; that the appointing power was conferred solely upon 
the Board, they holding themselves accountable to the Conven- 
tion for its discreet and faithful exercise. With respect, how- 
ever, to the immediate question which was implied in the reso- 
lutions, whether a person holding slaves, but possessing in other 
respects the requisite qualifications, would be appointed a mis- 



ORGANIZATION OF THE MISSIONARY UNION. 175 

sionaiy, the Acting Board explicitly declared, that " if any one 
should offer himself as a missionary having slaves, and should 
insist on retaining them as his property, they could not appoint 
him." 

So soon as this declaration was made public, the churches in 
all the Southern States withdrew from the Convention and 
formed a separate organization, adopting as a title " The South- 
ern Baptist Convention." In this state of things it was deemed 
necessary that the friends of missions in the Baptist denomina- 
tion in other parts of the country should organize themselves 
anew, under a constitution better adapted to their altered cir- 
cumstances. A special meeting of the Board of Managers was 
accordingly held at Philadelphia, in September, 1845, at which 
it was determined " to request the President of the General 
Convention to call an extra session of that body, to be held in 
the Baptist Tabernacle in the city of New York, on the third 
Wednesday of November next, at 10 o'clock, A. m." The Con- 
vention assembled agreeably to the summons of its President ; 
and after a full consideration of the imperfections of its present 
organization, entered upon the work of forming a new constitu- 
tion that should be better suited to the high ends to be accom- 
plished by a missionary body. The Convention had hitherto 
been composed of triennial members who individually contributed 
the sum of one hundred dollars each year, or who were elected as 
members or delegates by churches or societies contributing that 
sum. It was proposed in its reorganization to limit its opera- 
tions to one object, and to have it henceforth composed of actual 
and permanent members, who should be admitted on payment to 
the treasury at any one time of the sum of one hundred dollars. 

A constitution embodying this provision was framed and 
adopted by the Convention, and arrangements were made for 
procuring, from the legislature of Pennsylvania, such modifica- 
tions of the original charter as were required by the changes 
which had been introduced in its organization ; and also, as the 
property of the association was principally at Boston, to procure 
from the legislature of Massachusetts an additional charter of 



176 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

incorporation. These and other necessary legal measures hav- 
ing been accomplished, the Convention with its modified charter 
and its new organization went into operation in May, 1846, 
under the name of the "American Baptist Missionary Un- 
ion." The debt of the Convention, amounting to forty thousand 
dollars, was fully provided for by a subscription which was 
completed before that time ; and all its property, together with 
its engagements and liabilities, was transferred to the Union. 
Rev. Mr. Shuck, of the mission in China, entered the service 
of the Southern Convention, while all the other missionaries 
continued their connection with the Missionary Union.* 

Thus amicably and honorably was accomplished a local sepa- 
ration of the Baptists of the South and the North, which had 
been anticipated only with apprehension and alarm by many 
of the wisest and most patriotic members of our communion in 
both parts of the country. Such a separation could not be other 
than painful, for it drew a dividing line between those who had 
from the beginning been warm personal friends, and efficient 
fellow-laborers in the sacred work of giving the gospel to the 
heathen. The bad consequences, however, which were antici- 
pated from it, the social disunion and strife which were deemed 
likely to ensue, have thus far been averted, and the cause of 
true piety and the enterprise of Christian missions have appa- 
rently suffered no material detriment. Each missionary organ- 
ization is now engaged in its appropriate sphere, without rivalry 
or opposition, in promoting a common object and advancing a 
common interest of the human race. The churches which are ■ 
connected with each are learning a loftier piety and practising 
a larger liberality than ever before ; and we may well indulge 
the animating hope that, in the overruling providence of God, 
this event, which at first seemed fraught with disaster and strife, 
will be made to contribute to the more rapid advancement of 
the Redeemer's kingdom on the earth. 

# For details relating to these transactions see American Baptist Magazine, 
vols, xxv and xxvi. 



VISIT OF DR. JUDSON TO THE UNITED STATES. 177 

At the special meeting of the Convention which was held at 
New York, in November, 1845, was present the Rev. Dr. 
Adoniram Judson of Burmah, who a few weeks before had 
arrived in his native land, after an absence of thirty -three years. 
The venerable missionary was introduced to the Convention in 
an impressive manner, by Rev. Dr. Cone, one of the oldest 
members of the Board who were present, and was welcomed 
by its President, Rev. Dr. Wayland, in an address of great 
eloquence and beauty, to which, with a feeble voice, he made a 
brief but touching response. The scene was one of subduing 
interest, and will never be forgotten by those who beheld it. 
Hundreds were gazing for the first time upon one, the story of 
whose labors and sorrows and sufferings had been familiar to 
them from childhood, and whose name they had been accustomed 
to utter with reverence and affection as that of the pioneer 
and father of American missions to the heathen. They recalled 
the scenes of toil and privation through which he had passed, 
they remembered the loved ones with whom he had been con- 
nected, and their bosoms swelled with irrepressible emotions of 
gratitude and delight. 

To the missionary himself the spectacle must have been still 
more impressive. He had been absent for more than thirty 
years, the life-time of an entire generation, dwelling among a 
heathen people, studying and speaking strange languages ; and 
now, for the first time in his life he was standing among the 
brethren and friends on whom he had long leaned for support, 
but whose faces he had never before seen. He was in the 
land of his birth, — but how changed from all the recollections 
which dwelt in his mind ! Art, commerce, civilization and 
Christianity had multiplied their wondrous triumphs over every 
spot with which he was once familiar, till he might well doubt 
the reality of the scene on which he gazed, and believe himself 
u the subject of some supernatural illusion or wild and magical 
dream." 

He had embarked at Maulmain in April, 1845, in company 
with Mrs. Judson, whose health had so far declined as to afford 



178 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

no hope of recovery save by a voyage beyond the tropics. 
Reluctantly, yet in obedience to the promptings of affection 
and duty, he set his face towards the beloved land he had thought 
never to revisit. In order to continue the preparation of the 
Burman Dictionary, in which he had been long engaged, he 
took with him two assistants who were in his employ, intending 
to devote a portion of every day during the voyage to the prosecu- 
tion of his task. The health of Mrs. Judson began speedily to 
improve beneath the bracing airs of the ocean, and on arriving 
at the Isle of France he sent back the assistants to Maulmain, 
intending himself to return soon after. But the hopes of 
Mrs. Judson's restoration proved illusory. She grew constantly 
feebler as they proceeded on the voyage, till, on arriving at St. 
Helena, she died on ship-board, September 1, 1845. Her re- 
mains were carried on shore and entombed the same evening, 
amidst the tenderest demonstrations of sympathy and respect 
from Christian friends and residents of the island. Early on 
the following clay the solitary missionary, with his three eldest 
children { who had accompanied their parents from Maulmain, 
pursued his voyage to his native land, and arrived at Boston on 
the 15th of October. 

His arrival at Boston was greeted by the officers of the Board 
and by the ministers and churches of that city with the liveliest 
interest and delight. At a public meeting which was held on 
the following day, he was welcomed back to his native land by 
Rev. Dr. Sharp, the President of the Board, in a touching ad- 
dress which uttered the sympathies of a crowded auditory; sim- 
ilar greetings were offered him in other cities which he visited, 
and in every part of the country he was received with an in- 
terest and respect such as are seldom publicly accorded to a per- 
son of merely private station. These manifestations of regard 
were not confined to the religious denomination to which he be- 
longs ; members of every Christian communion and citizens of 
every rank were eager to do honor to the man who possessed 
so many titles to public veneration and gratitude ; who had 
toiled and suffered, as few of the present generation have ever 



MAULMAIN MISSION REINFORCED. 179 

done, for the benefit of his race and the spread of the gospel in 
the world. It was no sectarian adulation offered to a distin- 
guished name, but rather the natural homage which Christian 
civilization pays to the cause of Christian philanthropy ; the 
instinctive admiration of an intelligent and religious people for 
the character of one who has proved himself a great benefactor 
of mankind. The lesson is not without its value to the aspirants 
for renown. His life had been that of the self-denying mission- 
ary of the cross ; his sphere of duty had been far removed from 
that in which honor and distinction are wont to bestow their 
glittering rewards, yet without intending it, he had won them all, 
and that in the largest measure. For not the scholar who has 
adorned the literature of his age, not the statesman who has 
guided by his eloquence the counsels of a senate, has ever gained 
for himself the sincerer respect of his countrymen, or secured 
for his name a more honorable place in the annals of fame. 

Dr. Judson remained in the United States till the following 
July ; and though he was unable to address public assemblies, yet 
the influence of his presence at two meetings of the Convention 
and in the social circles of many different cities, largely contrib- 
uted to the increase and developement of an interest in the mis- 
sions which he represented. In June, 1846, he was married to 
Miss Emily Chubbuck of Hamilton, N. Y., and on the eleventh 
of July he set sail from Boston on his return to Maulmain, ac- 
companied by Mrs. Judson, by Rev. Messrs. Harris and Beecher 
and their wives, and Miss Lydia Lillybriclge. Mr. and Mrs. 
Harris were appointed to the Karen department of the Maul- 
main mission ; Mr. and Mrs. Beecher were to go to Arracan, 
while Miss Lillybridge was to be associated with Dr. and Mrs. 
Judson as a teacher in the Burman department of the mission. 
The missionaries arrived at the port of their destination on the 
fifth of December, and in due time repaired to the spheres of 
duty severally assigned them. 

During the absence of Dr. Judson, Mrs. Mason and Mrs. In- 
galls had been removed by death, Mr. Simons had returned to 
the United States, and Mr. and Mrs. Osgood had retired from 



180 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

the mission in consequence of ill health.* A change of very 
great importance had also taken place in the government of the 
Burman empire. The brutal and tyrannical monarch, Tharar 
waddy, who usurped the throne in 1837, had been driven from 
power by his own ministers, and a regency had been formed 
which, it was hoped by the missionaries, would no longer hinder 
their attempts to reestablish the mission in Burmah Proper. 
A few weeks after his arrival, Dr. Judson repaired to Rangoon 
in order to ascertain the disposition of the new government with 
respect to the promulgation of Christianity. After a brief visit 
he returned to Maulmain, for the purpose of carrying Mrs. Jud- 
son with him to Rangoon. They continued to reside there from 
February 1847 to the following September, but without any 
countenance either from the local or the imperial government. 
The little Burman church was much scattered, and, beneath the 
ceaseless vigilance of priests and officers, few ventured to assem- 
ble for worship, and none came to inquire concerning the doc- 
trines of Christ. Dr. Judson, however, baptized two Burman 
converts, and was gradually gathering together the scattered 
disciples, when he learned that a private order had been issued 
to watch the missionary's house, and li apprehend any who might 
be liable to the charge of favoring Jesus Christ's religion." The 
services on the Sabbath were immediately discontinued, and he 
determined to proceed to Ava in order once more to solicit tole- 
ration from the imperial government. But the funds then in 
the treasury of the mission at Maulmain were insufficient to 
meet the expense. The visit to the capital was therefore tem- 
porarily abandoned, and Dr. and Mrs. Judson soon returned to 
their post at Maulmain, where they have since continued to 
reside. 

In May, 1845, Rev. Dr. Pattison, Corresponding Secretary 
for the Home Department, resigned the office. Its duties were 

* Mr. Mason was also obliged to leave Tavoy on account of enfeebled health. 
He embarked for the United States, but on reaching Calcutta found his consti- 
tution so far recruited that he returned to Maulmain in May, 1847, and is now 
again at his station at Tavoy. 



RETURN OF MR. ABBOTT TO SANDOWAY. 181 

discharged by Rev. Mr. Peck, the Corresponding Secretary for 
the Foreign Department, until May 1846, when Rev. Edward 
Bright, jr., was chosen Assistant Corresponding Secretary, and 
assigned to the same executive post which had been before filled 
by Dr. Pattison. Mr. Bright has since been elected to the office 
of Corresponding Secretary for the Home Department. In 
June, 1845, Mr. Richard E. Eddy was appointed Assistant 
Treasurer in the place of Mr. Levi Farwell deceased ; and 
subsequently, in September, 1846, was chosen Treasurer on 
the resignation of Hon. Heman Lincoln, who had held the office 
for twenty-two years, and during the whole period had fulfilled 
its obligations and borne its responsibilities without pecuniary 
compensation. 

Mr. Abbott left the United States on his return to Arracan 
in August, 1847.* Proceeding by the way of England, he has- 
tened by the overland route to Calcutta, where he arrived No- 
vember 4th, and reached Sandoway early in December. He 
made his journey thus rapidly in order to be able to fulfill an 
engagement with the native assistants attached to his station, — 
that if hia life was spared he would meet them in January, 
1848, at Ong-kyoung, the place at which he parted from them 
three years before. Immediately on his arrival he sent abroad 
a circular announcing his return, and appointing the meeting 
which had been agreed upon. In January, Mr. Abbott accom- 
panied by Rev. Mr. Beecher repaired to Ong-kyoung, where 
he met the assistants and a large number of Christian Karens. 
The meeting was one of unusual interest. The pastors and 
preachers whom he had left in charge of the churches scattered 
over this district of Arracan and the neighboring portion of 
Burmah Proper, reported the condition of their several flocks. 

* The visit of Mr. Abbott to this country was productive of unusually 
beneficial results. He was fresh from the field of a most interesting mission, 
and in many churches, over all the land, he narrated the thrilling story of the 
suffering yet faithful Karens. The interest which was thus awakened in be- 
half of these remarkable people, we may hope, will not die away till they 
shall all be converted to Christianity. 

17 



182 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

The confidence of the missionary in the men whom he had ap- 
pointed to the work of preaching the gospel to their country- 
men, was fully sustained by their fidelity and labors during his 
absence. Of the two ordained ministers, Tway-Poh, who was 
at the head of the churches in Arracan, had baptized six hun- 
dred converts, and Myat-Kyau who, though living in Arracan, 
preached most frequently to the Karens from Burmah, had 
baptized five hundred and fifty. At no period in the history of 
the mission had the progress of the gospel been more remarka- 
ble ; and the scene which presented itself to the delighted mis- 
sionary on his return, was fitted to impart the highest encour- 
agement and awaken the liveliest gratitude. Of the twenty 
native assistants appointed by Mr. Abbott, but not ordained to 
the gospel ministry, two had died and one had been suspended, 
while sixteen others had been added to the number, — so that 
he found on his return thirty-six native preachers, who reported 
not less than twelve hundred converts in their several districts, 
waiting to be baptized and admitted to the churches. 

In the autumn of 1847 Rev. W. Moore and his wife, and in 
1848 Rev. Messrs. Yan Meter, C. C. Moore and Benjamin, 
with their wives, sailed from this country as reinforcements to 
the missions in Burmah; one of these was designated to the 
Burmese of Arracan, and the three others to the Karens in 
the districts of Maulmain, Sandoway and Tavoy. 

Since the return of Rev. Dr. Judson to Maulmain, he has 
assiduously devoted his labors to the preparation of the Burman 
and English Dictionary, one part of which is now passing 
through the press, while the other is far advanced towards com- 
pletion. AVhile at Rangoon, in 1847, he was frequently urged 
by the government interpreter there to go up to Ava, in order 
to avail himself of literary aids which could be found only at the 
capital, and without which he could not perfect the work in 
which he is engaged. He was then prevented from going ; 
but his subsequent experience has satisfied him of its necessity, 
and his latest communications to the Board bear tidings of his 
intention soon to take passage to Rangoon, and again ascend 



GENERAL PROGRESS OF THE MISSIONS. 183 

the Irrawaddy to the Burman capital. Though the immediate 
object of the visit is the perfection of the Dictionary, yet it may 
obviously have an important bearing upon the interests and 
prospects of the missions. Twenty-three years have elapsed 
since he was last at the Burman court. In that time a new 
dynasty has occupied the throne, and new influences have been 
at work among the people ; aud it may be that the toleration 
which the monarch then sternly refused may now be granted, 
when again asked for by one who has proved himself the life- 
long friend of the Burman people, and has conferred the most 
important benefits upon their language and their literature. 
The return of the missionary to Ava in these altered circum- 
stances, and with these new r claims to the respect of the king 
and his courtiers, cannot fail to awaken the profoundest interest 
among the friends of the missions, and to inspire the animating 
hope that it may be attended with results that shall favor the 
introduction of Christianity into this idolatrous empire. 

Few other changes have taken place in these missions of 
a character requiring that they be recorded in this general 
narrative. Although they have been -crippled by the death or 
the departure of several of the missionaries, yet the blessing 
of Heaven has constantly attended the labors of those who re- 
main. At each of the stations Christianity has made a gradual 
progress ; the churches have received frequent accessions, and 
the schools have instructed their numerous pupils in the precepts 
of the gospel. Of the latter, the Burman Boarding School con- 
ducted by Mr. Howard, and the Karen Normal School which 
has been commenced by Mrs. Binney, possess a peculiar interest 
and importance. Both of these schools are designed to separate 
children in early life from the evil influences to w T hich they are 
exposed in their daily associations, and, without changing their 
national characteristics, to train them up in the industrious hab- 
its, the useful knowledge, and the domestic virtues of Christian 
society. The Normal School was commenced in 1846 ; it has, 
almost from the beginning, numbered thirty pupils, — most of 
whom are boys, — who will remain under the teacher's charge 



184: MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

until they have received the rudiments of an education that will 
fit them to become instructors and exemplars for their country- 
men. Some changes have also taken place in the schools which 
are designed especially for theological instruction and the more 
efficient training of native preachers and assistants. The Bur- 
man class, which has been under the care of Mr. Stevens, has 
been greatly reduced in number, most of its recent members 
being now engaged in preaching in the city and the districts of 
Maulmain. Of the schools for the Karens, that which is the 
most strictly theological in its character is the Seminary at 
Maulmain under the charge of Mr. Binney. The course of 
instruction here is becoming more thorough, and is awakening 
with every succeeding session a more hearty interest in the 
minds of the pupils. The Seminary has now twenty-five mem- 
bers, who, with suitable vacations, continue at their studies 
through the entire year. In addition to this, the leading insti- 
tution for the training of Karen preachers, the native assistants 
during every rainy season are assembled in classes and instructed 
at Tavoy by Mr. Cross, and at Sandoway by Mr. Abbott and 
Mr. Beecher. The number thus collected during the last sea- 
son at Tavoy was twenty- eight, and that at Sandoway was thirty. 
In this manner are the missionaries establishing the institutions 
of the gospel among these untaught people, and spreading over 
them the amenities of social and intellectual culture as well as 
the saving influences of Christian truth. 

Large editions of the Burman Bible had already been printed, 
but the press has been multiplying copies of the New Testament 
in both dialects of the Karen, and also in the Peguan, or Ta- 
ling ; and in addition to these it has printed, and sent forth over 
the whole empire, millions of pages of tracts and other writings 
which explain to the people the doctrines taught by the mission- 
aries. Many of these undoubtedly perish, uncared-for and 
unread ; but the greater number, there is reason to believe, 
find their way to the mind of the nation, and in city and coun- 
try, by rivers and mountains, are sowing the seeds of a purer 
religion and a happier civilization for the inhabitants of Bur- 



THEIR RESULTS ESTIMATED. 185 

mah. Assiduous labor and threatening disease have thinned 
the ranks of the missionaries, and compelled many of them to 
return to the United States in order to recruit their declining 
health.* Here, however, they are for the most part engaged in 
the prosecution of works commenced at the missions, or in the 
no less important service of setting forth the degraded and 
darkened condition of the heathen, and urging their claims upon 
the philanthropy of the Christian public. In addition to those, 
however, who are still detained in their native land, the num- 
ber of missionaries who are now attached to the several mis- 
sions in Burmah is twenty males and eighteen females, — of 
whom nineteen are ordained ministers of the gospel, two 
are connected with the press, while the ladies at each of the 
stations are engaged in the instruction of the schools. There 
are also employed in the various departments of missionary 
labor, not less than one hundred and ten native assistants, — 
of whom twenty- six are Burmans, or Peguans, while all the 
others are Karens. The entire appropriations of the Board for 
these several missions in all their departments, for the year 
ending March 31, 1849, amounted to thirty-four thousand 
dollars. The whole number of churches under their care is 
about sixty-five, connected with which are not less than six 
thousand five hundred members. 

The missions in Burmah formed the earliest enterprise of 
Christian philanthropy in which our churches were enlisted, and 
on this account, if on no other, they are fraught with the most 
interesting associations and the most affecting memories. They 
had their origin with the men of a generation most of whose 
representatives have passed from among the living ; and, through 
the lapse of more than thirty years, they have been the subject 
of earnest solicitude and hope, . — the burden of humble prayer, 

* For this cause Mr. and Mrs. Vinton, and Mr. and Mrs. Wade, are now in 
this country — the former having arrived in the spring, and the latter in the 
summer of 1848. Mr. Vinton is accompanied by two Karens, a Pwo and a 
Sgau, with whose assistance he is revising the version of the New Testament 
in each of the Karen dialects. 

17* 



186 MISSIONS IN BURMAH. 

and the incitement of Christian effort to our whole denomination. 
'But apart from all these associations of the past, their history 
is crowded with vicissitudes of the most striking character — 
with instances of heroic self-devotion and life-long labor, — with 
scenes of trial and suffering, and with spiritual successes and 
triumphs, such as are seldom chronicled in the records of 
modern missions ; and if with these features of their character 
we connect the simple story of the Karens, — their oppressions 
and their untold wrongs, — their mysterious traditions and their 
wonderful conversion to Christianity, — the missions in Burmah 
become invested with the deepest and most thrilling interest to 
every Christian mind. They present the extraordinary specta- 
cle of a whole people turning to the worship of God; coming 
forth from their mountain retreats or from the depths of their un- 
visited jungle, and eagerly accepting the doctrines and the faith 
of the gospel of Christ. To those who have visited their sta- 
tions, and especially to the philanthropic English officers * who 
govern the provinces in which they are established, they have 
commended themselves as agencies of the highest importance 
and of unexampled success in promoting the social and the spirit- 
ual culture of the people for whom they are designed. To the 
American public, and especially to the members of the Chris- 
tian denomination by whom they were planted, they appeal 
by the strongest considerations for liberal support and continued 
enlargement ; for they present a field of philanthropic effort, 
of encouraging missionary labor, such as is rarely to be found in 
any other missions upon the globe. 

=* Among these I record with peculiar pleasure the names of Majors Burney 
and Broadfoot and of Capt. H. M. Durand. Each of these gentlemen has filled the 
office of Civil Commissioner in the Tenasserim provinces, and each has lent a 
generous aid in promoting the interests ,of the missions. Captain Durand es- 
pecially, during his residence in Burmah, was a warm personal friend of the 
missionaries, and an active and zealous fellow-laborer with them in establish- 
ing schools, in erecting chapels, and in advancing the social and spiritual 
progress of the people. Since his return to England he has borne the most 
unequivocal testimony to their industry, piety and fidelity, and in many a circle 
of the doubting and the uninformed, has delighted to narrate the progress of 
the gospel among the Karens as a triumphant vindication of the cause of 
Christian missions. 



MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Arrival of Rev. J. T. Jones at Bangkok. — Character of the Siamese. — Arri- 
val of Mr. Dean. — His Labors among the Chinese at Bangkok. — A Chinese 
Church. — Arrival of other Missionaries. — Progress of Chinese Department. 

— Death of Mr. Reed and Mrs. Jones. — Printing the Scriptures in Siamese. 

— Arrival of Messrs. Slafter and Goddard. — Death of Mr. Slafter. — Prog- 
ress of each Department of the Mission. — Temporary Station at Macao. — 
Chinese War. — Its Results. — Removal of Missionaries to Hongkong. — 
Death of Mrs. Dean. — Station at Ningpo. — Treaty between China and the 
United States. — Its Results. — Death of Mrs. Shuck. — Prospects of the 
Station at Hongkong. — Condition of the Mission at Bangkok. — Translations 
of the Bible in China. — Labors of Messrs. Dean and Goddard. — Present 
Attitude of these Missions. 

The Mission of the American Baptists in Siam is designed 
in part for the Siamese, and in part for the Chinese, who are 
found there in great numbers, and until within a few years have 
been wholly inaccessible in their own country. It was com- 
menced in March, 1833, by Rev. J. T. Jones, formerly of Ban- 
goon, who with Mrs. Jones at that time established his residence 
at Bangkok, the capital of the kingdom. The city had already 
been visited at different times by Rev. Mr. Gutzlaff of the 
Basle Missionary Society, Rev. Mr. Abeel of the American 
Board, and more recently by Rev. Mr. Toumlin of the London 
Missionary Society. These gentlemen however had all gone 
to other fields of labor ; and the latter on his departure had writ- 
ten to the Baptist Missionaries in Burmah, urging them to send 
some of their number to Siam. In was in these circumstances, 
and by the appointment of his brethren at Maulmain, that Mr. 
Jones went to Bangkok for the purpose of commencing a mis- 
sion there. 



188 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

The city stands upon the river Meinam, the chief river of 
Siam, about twenty-five miles from the sea. It is built in part 
upon an island in the middle of the river, and in part upon eith- 
er bank, along which it extends for several miles. Its appear- 
ance, to one approaching it from the sea, is far from imposing, 
though it is said to contain many magnificent buildings, and to be 
distinguished for its profuse display of oriental wealth and splen- 
dor. The population has been variously estimated ; by some it has 
been put as low as 40,000, while by others it has been reckoned 
at upwards of 400,000. Mr. Malcom, who was at considerable 
pains to form a correct estimate, makes the number of inhabi- 
tants in the city and its immediate suburbs, about 100,000, of 
whom not more than 3,000 or 4,000 live within the walls. They 
are made up of many different races, and present a motley variety 
of costume, manners, language and modes of life. The Chinese 
are the most numerous, and number not less than 60,000. Of the 
remainder 30,000 are Siamese, and 10,000 are of other races, 
such as Cochin Chinese, Peguans, Malays and Portuguese. 

The religion of Siam, as of Burmah, is Buddhism, though in 
Bangkok it is not a little modified by the variety of forms in 
which it is professed by the different races composing the popu- 
lation. The Siamese are a grade lower in civilization than the 
Burmans. They are less active and intelligent, and are equally 
addicted to the vices of half civilized life. In personal appear- 
ance they are said to be among the least attractive of the 
Asiatic races, but they are by no means among the most de- 
graded. Though mean, slothful, crafty and rapacious, they are 
described as possessing qualities which indicate that they are 
not wanting in capacity for civilization. Their language is ex- 
ceedingly simple, and is far more easily acquired than the Bur- 
man, though it contains but little literature ; and the number of 
Siamese who can read is said to be unusually small. 

On arriving at Bangkok in 1833, Mr. Jones was courteously 
received by several of the officers of the court to whom he be- 
came known, and was soon able, without opposition or molesta- 
tion, to commence the labors of the mission. His house became 



SIAM MISSION ESTABLISHED* 189 

a place of frequent resort for a large circle of persons, — Chi- 
nese, Burmans and Peguans, — who came to converse with him 
concerning the doctrines which he taught. He found the Chi- 
nese part of the population by far the most accessible and 
inquisitive ; but as he was unacquainted with their language 
he was able to reach only those who could speak the Burman 
or the Peguan tongue. The four earliest converts were Chi- 
nese. Two of them had formerly been instructed by Messrs. 
Gutzlaff and Abeel, — and seemed to have been converted by 
their instrumentality. They were all baptized by Mr. Jones 
on the 8th of December, 1833 ; and one of them, named Chek 
Bunti, was immediately appointed an assistant in the mission, to 
take charge of a school for Chinese boys, and also to conduct 
w r orship in Chinese on the Sabbath. 

Mr. Jones soon acquired such familiarity with the language 
as to feel justified in commencing the translation of the Scrip- 
tures. The Gospel of Matthew was completed in 1835, and a 
catechism of the New Testament was also gotten ready for the 
press. He accordingly repaired to Singapore in order to have 
them printed at the press of the mission of the American Board, 
which was established there. A large edition of each of these 
works was speedily printed, and in the following June he re- 
turned to Siam, furnished with additional means of carrying 
forward the labors of his mission. 

The mission at Bangkok had been commenced without waiting 
to obtain the sanction of the Board of Managers ; they however 
immediately gave it their full approbation. A treaty of amity 
and commerce had recently been concluded between the gov- 
ernment of the United States and the King of Siam, and the 
attention of the Board had already been directed to that country 
as furnishing, on account of its intimate relations with China, 
a suitable field for missionary operations among the Chinese. 
On learning that Mr. Jones had gone to Bangkok, they immedi- 
ately determined to carry out their design and to send additional 
missionaries to the station. In this manner Bangkok became 
the seat of missionary labors both for the Siamese and for the 



190 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

Chinese, great numbers of whom reside in Siam or are constantly 
drawn thither in the intercourse of trade. 

In pursuance of this design, Rev. William Dean and his 
wife sailed from the United States in September, 1834, and 
arrived at Singapore in February, 1835, during the visit of Mr. 
Jones at that port. They determined to remain at Singapore, 
engaged in studying the Chinese language, until the printing of 
the Gospel of Matthew should be completed ; but during the in- 
terval Mrs. Dean was suddenly summoned away by death, only 
a few weeks after their arrival. Mr. Dean accompanied Mr. 
Jones to Bangkok in the following June, and entered immediately 
upon his labors as a missionary to the Chinese. In December, 
three other Chinamen were baptized and added to the little band 
of disciples. Indeed the Chinese inhabitants of Siam soon be- 
gan to evince a greater interest in the teachings of the mission- 
aries than the native Siamese, and even to the present day 
nearly all the spiritual fruits of the mission at Bangkok have 
been among them. 

So strong however is the appetite for opium among these 
people, and so ruinous are the effects of its use, that the missiona- 
ries early found it necessary to adopt special precautions in order 
to fortify the converts against its seductive influence. They 
were formed into an association, in which they pledged them- 
selves to each other to abstain from the use of the intoxicating 
and enervating drug. But in spite of every precaution, Chek 
Bunti, the assistant in the mission and one of the earliest con- 
verts, yielded to the tempation and fell away from the faith 
which he professed. Others also were at first corrupted by his 
evil example ; but most of them soon returned in penitence, to 
confess the shame they had brought upon the cause of the new 
religion. 

In March, 1836, Mr. Jones having completed the translation 
of the Acts of the Apostles, went again to Singapore to obtain 
fonts of types both in Siamese and Chinese, in anticipation of 
the arrival of a press which had been promised from America. 
He extended his voyage to Penang and Malacca for the benefit 



LABORS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 191 

of Mrs. Jones's health, and on his return to Singapore found that 
Rev. Messrs. Davenport, Reed, and Shuck, with their wives, 
had arrived during his absence, bringing with them the expected 
press, and the necessary materials for printing. Messrs. Daven- 
port and Reed soon accompanied him to Bangkok, the former to 
be attached as preacher and printer to the Siamese, and the lat- 
ter to be associated with Mr. Dean in the Chinese department 
of the mission, while Mr. Shuck remained at Singapore, intend- 
ing soon to commence a station either at Macao or at Canton. 

The mission was now fairly started at Bangkok. A commo- 
dious printing house was erected, together with a strong store 
made of brick, for containing the paper and other materials, and 
keeping them secure from dampness and from the insects that 
might destroy them. The press was kept constantly in opera- 
tion under the direction of Mr. Davenport, printing books and 
tracts, both in Siamese and in Chinese. Mr. Dean occupied a 
floating house on the river, and was constantly engaged in labors 
for the Chinese population, having at his house on Sundays and 
other days of preaching, congregations varying from thirty to 
fifty persons ; while Mr. Jones still devoted himself to the trans- 
lation of the Scriptures into Siamese, the preparation of tracts, 
and to visiting the Wats, or places of worship, for the purpose of 
conversing with the people and preaching to them the doctrines 
of the gospel. He also made several excursions up the river 
Meinam and short distances into the interior, in order to become 
acquainted with the population and to distribute tracts and books 
which he had prepared for their instruction. Schools were also 
established in which the few pupils who could be induced to at- 
tend were instructed by the ladies of the mission. The parents, 
both among the Siamese and the Chinese, generally refused to 
allow their children to attend the schools of the missionaries, al- 
leging as reasons that they did not wish them taught not to wor- 
ship priests and idols, and that in case they were in need of 
money they might choose to sell them as slaves. . Indeed a 
considerable portion of the scholars, who have been retained in 
the schools long enough to receive even the rudiments of an edu- 



192 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

cation, have been such as were redeemed from slavery either 
by the influence or the direct purchase of the missionaries 
themselves. 

In the summer of 1837 the mission at Bangkok was visited 
by Rev. Mr. Malcom, in his official tour in the East, and while 
he was there its several members, together with the three 
Chinese converts who still remained faithful, were formed 
into a Christian church. Three others were added soon after- 
wards, and the labors of the mission, particularly among the 
Chinese, continued to prosper until they were interrupted by 
changes and bereavements which filled the hearts of all its mem- 
bers with sorrow. The first of these was the death of Mr. Reed, 
which took place in August, 1837, just as he had completed his 
novitiate as a missionary, and was commencing the work of 
preaching in Chinese, for which he had been long preparing. 
In October of the same year Mr. Dean, having seen his fellow- 
laborer smitten down by his side, found his own health seriously 
undermined, and was obliged to make a voyage to Singapore 
for its recovery. While the mission was thus reduced in num- 
bers and in strength, it pleased Heaven again to visit it with an- 
other heavy affliction in the sudden death of Mrs. Jones. She 
was seized by that dreadful scourge of the East, the spasmodic 
cholera, and died in March, 1838. She had been a missionary 
for nine years, and, in feeble health, amidst many disadvantages, 
had mastered both the Burman and the Siamese language, and 
performed an unusual amount of service, especially among her 
own sex, in the missions with which she had been connected. 
In addition to this she had translated into Siamese two books of 
the Old Testament, and prepared a dictionary of several thou- 
sand words of that language. She died happy in the conscious- 
ness that her efforts to give the gospel to the heathen had not 
been in vain ; for she had seen many of her own sex, so neglect- 
ed and degraded by the social systems of the East, raised by 
her instrumentality to the liberty and dignity which the gospel 
of Christ alone can confer. 

Mr. Dean having extended his voyage from Singapore to 



THE MISSION REINFORCED AND BEREAVED. 193 

Macao and Canton, was married at Macao to Miss Theodosia 
Ann Barker, an English lady resident there, with whom he re- 
turned to Bangkok in May, 1838. Mr. Jones had for some 
time been engaged in revising his translations of the New Tes- 
tament. He had now completed the Gospels of Matthew, Mark 
and Luke, together with the Acts of the Apostles, and was 
already commencing some of the Ejnstles, and at the same 
time enlarging and perfecting the dictionary which had been 
begun by other hands, whose labors, alas! were now closed by 
death. The arrangements for printing, which had proved ex- 
ceedingly defective on account of the imperfection of the types, 
were also perfected in the summer of 1838 by the arrival ot 
the necessary material for a type foundry, which was procured 
at Malacca by Mr. Jones of Mr. Dyer, a gentleman in the employ 
of the London Missionary Society. A second printing press 
was also added to the property of the mission in Decem- 
ber, 1838. With these additional facilities the work of print- 
ing was resumed ; tracts and copies of the gospel and other 
portions of the Scriptures were rapidly multiplied, and nearly a 
million of pages were also struck off for the use of the mission- 
aries of the American Board who were stationed in Bangkok.* 
In June, 1839, Rev. Messrs. Slafter and Goddard with their 
wives arrived at Singapore, having been appointed by the 
Board as a reinforcement of the mission in Siam. Mr. Slafter 
carried with him an additional press and proceeded immediately 
to Bangkok, where he became associated with Mr. Jones in la- 
bors among the Siamese. His career as a missionary was brought 
to an early close. He speedily acquired the language, and made 
several excursions in different directions into the interior for the 
purpose of circulating books and conversing with the people ; 
but ere he had scarcely begun the work of preaching the gospel, 
he fell a victim to disease, and died on the 7th of April, 1841. 
Mr. Goddard, who was originally designated to the Chinese 

* The mission of this Board at Bangkok was commenced in 1834, before it 
was known to the Commissioners in the United States that Mr, Jones had 
gone to Siam. 

18 



194 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

department of the mission, remained at Singapore for more than 
a year, studying the language, and in other ways preparing 
himself for the labors of his post. He went to Bangkok in Oc- 
tober, 1840, and immediately entered upon the routine of duties 
which there awaited him. 

The operations of both branches of the mission have been 
frequently interrupted by changes occasioned by the ill health 
of the missionaries, yet they have been attended with very 
different measures of success. Among the Siamese, the gospel 
has been preached, and that too with scarcely any opposition 
from either the government or the priesthood of the country. 
The entire New Testament * and several books of the Old Tes- 
tament have been translated and printed, and tracts and books 
have been given to the people in unusual numbers, and with 
all desirable care on the part of the missionaries to insure their 
being read, but no corresponding results have thus far followed. 
Not a single Siamese! has been converted to Christianity, and 
scarcely any durable impression has been made on the imper- 
turbable indifference with which the mind of the nation seems 
to regard religious truth. It is true they appear to have read 
the books, and often to have expressed opinions concerning 
them. The priests have in many instances acknowledged the 
utterly false and fabulous character of their own sacred writ- 
ings ; yet neither priests nor people have thus far recognized 
the obligations of Christianity, or been attracted by the simple 
beauty of its heavenly message. This department of the mis- 
sion at Bangkok has in consequence failed to create the interest 
which its connection with a populous kingdom would of itself 
naturally inspire. Its missionaries, always few in number, 
have often been obliged to remit their labors in consequence of 
enfeebled health. Mr. Jones has twice visited the United 
States. Mrs. Eeed and Mrs. Slafter, who were for some time 
engaged in schools, have both withdrawn from the mission ; and 

* This was accomplished by Mr. Jones, in 1839. 

f The conversion of the first Siamese is reported in a recent letter from the 
mission. See American Baptist Magazine, March, 1849. 



PROGRESS OF THE CHINESE DEPARTMENT. 195 

Mr. and Mrs. Davenport, unable longer to labor in the climate 
of Siam, returned to this country in 1845, and have since ceas- 
ed to be missionaries. 

In 1843, Mr. Chandler, a machinist and type-founder con- 
nected with the mission at Maulmain, went to reside at Bangkok. 
He has been attached to the printing department, and has ren- 
dered much valuable incidental service in introducing the me- 
chanic arts into the kingdom. For this purpose he accepted 
the invitation of Prince Momfanoi to aid him in building sev- 
eral kinds of machinery after American models. The arrange- 
ments which were adopted were designed to be specially favor- 
able to the improvement of the Siamese artisans ; and so re- 
spectful was the prince to the religious principles of Mr. Chand- 
ler, that he directed his laborers to cease from work on the 
Sabbath, — and though they were often hurried in their labors, 
yet the rule was faithfully observed for more than a year. But 
notwithstanding these and other incidental results which have 
been accomplished, it must still be confessed that little hold 
has thus far been gained upon the mind of the Siamese ; and 
after fifteen years of the labors of the missionaries, prosecuted 
amidst all the advantages of the press and of the translated 
Scriptures, Siam now presents not a single Christian church for 
her own people rising among her countless temples of heathen- 
ism, and scarcely a single worshipper of the true God kneeling 
in spiritual devotion amidst her millions of idolaters. 

The branch of the mission among the Chinese population of 
Bangkok has been attended by many encouragements. This 
station, and the station at Macao, where Mr. and Mrs. Shuck 
went to reside in September, 1836, were designed to be points 
of approach from which the missionaries might at length extend 
their labors to China itself. They were both commenced at a 
period when the teachers of religion and the agents of com- 
merce were alike studiously excluded from the empire, and 
when of all its countless population, the doctrines of the gospel 
could be made known only to those who were living away from 
its scornful prejudices, and beyond the jurisdiction of its haughty 



196 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

despotism. It was found at these, and at other neighboring 
posts at which Christian missions had been planted for their 
benefit, that the Chinese were far more accessible than had been 
imagined ; and that, when away from China, they evinced far 
less of their characteristic contempt for the civilization and re- 
ligion of Christian nations. They are separated from the rest 
of mankind by a language of the greatest difficulty ; yet, when 
this has been fully mastered by the missionaries, they have 
proved themselves by no means indifferent to the appeals of 
moral truth ; and though even to this day but little has been ac- 
complished by the combined efforts of all the missionaries who 
have been sent to them, yet many of the strongest barriers to 
the diffusing of the gospel have been removed, and both among 
the learned and the unlearned there are now found those who 
have received the religion of Christ. 

At the Bangkok station, Mr. Dean and Mr. Goddard were for 
two years after the arrival of the latter the only missionaries 
among the Chinese. Mr. Dean was employed as a preacher 
and preparer of books and tracts, and also instructed the native 
assistants in Christian theology, and in other ways directed 
them in the performance of their labors. Mr. Goddard, with 
here and there a brief interval of interruption, has been up to 
a recent period assiduously engaged 'in the service of the mis- 
sion as a preacher and a translator of the Scriptures. In 1840 
the members of the church were nine in number ; in the follow- 
ing year seven more were added, and each succeeding year has 
witnessed some accession to the little band. Portions of both 
the Old and the New Testament have been prepared and print- 
ed by the missionaries, and tracts and books have been circulat- 
ed among the people, and also, by means of the sailors and mer- 
chants who come to Bangkok from every port in China, have 
been scattered along the entire coast, and it may be far into the 
interior of the empire. 

At Macao, a port under the jurisdiction of the Portuguese, 
Mr. Shuck met with the same facilities for laboring among the 
Chinese. In September, 1841, Rev. Issachar J. Roberts, who 



CHINESE WAR. 197 

had for some time been residing at Macao as a missionary of a 
society then existing in the Western States, entered into the 
service of the Board, and became associated with Mr. Shuck. 
Two or three Chinese were baptized at this station, and tidings 
of the gospel were borne widely abroad by the wanderings of 
those who had conversed with the missionaries or read the 
tracts and books which they distributed. Small, however, and 
quite inadequate were the fruits which had been borne at this 
station, when, in 1841, missionary labors among the Chinese 
were for a time interrupted by the breaking out of the war be- 
tween England and China, and the blockade of the port of 
Macao. 

This war was regarded by the religious public, both in 
England and in this country, as one whose objects were wholly 
unjustifiable, and whose results would probably tend still further 
to alienate the empire from all Christian nations. Serious 
difficulties had been pending for three years between the two 
nations, arising mainly from the attempts of the emperor to 
suppress the trade in opium in which the English were largely 
engaged. Several acts of hostility were perpetrated in 1840 ; 
and in the following spring, having collected large naval and 
military forces at the island of Hongkong, the English proceed- 
ed to invest Canton and several other leading cities along the 
coast. It was not till after the sacrifice of immense treasure 
and the lives of thousands of his subjects, that the emperor would 
accept the terms dictated by the English minister plenipoten- 
tiary, in a manner so humiliating to imperial pride. At length, 
in August, 1842, a treaty of perpetual amity was concluded, 
which has altered the relations of China to the entire civilized 
world. By the terms of the treaty the island of Hongkong, 
lying at the mouth of the Canton river, was ceded to " the 
queen of England, her heirs and successors forever," and the five 
ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuhchau, Ningpo and Shanghai, were 
opened to British commerce, and the residence of British 
officers and merchants. Thus, as has often happened in the col- 
lisions of nations, did a war which was begun in order to promote 
18* 



198 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

an iniquitous traffic, finally terminate in the extension of Chris- 
tian civilization and in preparing the way for the ultimate intro- 
duction of the gospel into the most populous empire of the 
globe. 

The result was hailed with thankfulness and joy by the 
friends of missions in all parts of the world as most auspicious 
to the cause which they were engaged in promoting ; and 
in England especially, it awakened new feelings of obligation to 
send the blessings of Christianity to the distant people thus 
subjugated by her arms. The English immediately began to 
occupy the ports which were opened for their residence, and 
the American missionaries to the Chinese, who had been re- 
siding at Bangkok and Macao, determined to remove to China, 
and establish the mission at such of the free ports as might 
prove most advantageous and inviting. Mr. Roberts had al- 
ready gone from Macao to Hongkong in February, 1842, and 
was followed a few months later by Mr. and Mrs. Shuck. Mr. 
Dean also left Bangkok in February, 1842, and after lingering 
at Singapore and Macao for the benefit of his health, arrived 
at Hongkong in the following June. Though the treaty had not 
then been ratified, yet the free ports were all in the hands of 
the English, — and the missionaries, availing themselves of the 
protection afforded by the British flag, immediately set about 
ascertaining the different points at which stations might most 
advantageously be planted. For this purpose Mr. Dean ac- 
cepted the invitation of the captain and supercargo of the 
Lowell, the first American ship which entered the eastern har- 
bors of China, to take passage to Kulangsu, Chusan and Amoy. 
At each of these places he made inquiries and observations re- 
specting the object he had in view, and also obtained much 
valuable information concerning the other cities on the coast 
which were likely to be opened to the commerce of the English. 
He returned in October apparently most favorably impressed 
with Amoy as the future seat of the mission ; but as the extent 
of the toleration which would be granted to a foreign religion 
was not yet fully known, it was decided to plant the principal 



A STATION PLANTED AT HONGKONG. 201 

station for the present at Hongkong, which was already pre- 
senting a most inviting field for missionary labor. The island 
has several towns, all of which, beneath the freedom and secu- 
rity of the English rule, are rapidly growing in population, and 
are evidently destined to assume a commanding importance. 
Messrs. Dean and Shuck accordingly established themselves at 
the principal city of Hongkong — now known as Victoria, while 
Mr. Roberts went to Chek-chu, a smaller town on the south side 
of the island. 

At Victoria a lot was granted by the government on which 
a mission house was erected ; two commodious chapels were 
also built, to be used alike for public worship and for schools ; 
and the expenses of these buildings were defrayed principally 
by English gentlemen then residing at Hongkong and Macao, 
among whom was Sir Henry Pottinger, the negotiator of the 
treaty. A church of five members, in addition to the missiona- 
ries, was organized and placed under the care of Mr. Shuck, to 
which four others were added by the close of 1842. A chapel 
was also erected at Chek-chu, in which Mr. Roberts conducted 
service both in English and in Chinese, and also superintended 
a school for Chinese youth, which was instructed in part by one 
of the disciples who had come up from Siam. Thus, under the 
supervision of these three missionaries, were planted the earliest 
missions of the American Baptists in that ancient and hitherto 
unknown empire, which embraces beneath its sway nearly a 
fourth part of the human race. They had long been laboring 
among the Chinese, but now for the first time were their stations 
established in China. Though for the present limited to a single 
island, yet both the missionaries and their friends in America 
exulted in the thought that the barriers of ages were at length 
broken down, and that the way was now open to the country on 
whose confines they had long been eagerly waiting. 

In March, 1813, the mission was bereft of Mrs. Dean, a lady 
of superior culture and most exemplary piety. Born at Thet- 
ford, England, she had come to China in 1836 in the service of 



202 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

the " Society for Promoting Female Education in the East." At 
the period of her marriage to Mr. Dean she had already ac- 
quired the language ; and an extensive acquaintance with the 
manners and religious opinions of the people and their acquire- 
ments, together with the eminent advantages which she had 
enjoyed in England, fitted her for high usefulness in her subse- 
quent capacity as the wife of a Christian missionary ; and, 
whether at the solitary station at Bangkok or beneath the victo- 
rious flag of her own countrymen at Hongkong, she ever proved 
herself a judicious adviser and a devoted laborer in the mission 
which she had adopted. Mr. Dean, from the commencement of 
his labors among the Chinese, had been accustomed to the Tie- 
Chiu dialect, and hence most readily directed his attention to the 
people of that province who resided at Hongkong or occasion- 
ally visited the island for the purposes of trade. He had 
maintained public worship in this dialect for several months ; 
and in May, 1843, a second church was constituted at Victoria, 
composed of three members from the Tie Chiu province. The 
church was placed under the charge of Mr. Dean, whose health 
however had now become so far enfeebled as often to interrupt 
his labors, and intimate to him that he must soon suspend them 
altogether and go to a more genial climate. 

The mission at Hongkong, though still subjected to interrup- 
tions and bereavements, soon became highly prosperous. Its 
interests and objects were favored by many of the English officers 
and residents, and the Chinese people heard the gospel preached 
in their different dialects, or read its precepts in the written lan- 
guage which is common to them all. Accessions were made to 
the churches, and all the interests of the station assumed a most 
encouraging aspect. 'In the spring of 1843 Dr. D. J. Macgowan 
arrived at Hongkong, and became connected with the mission. 
He, however, soon went up to Canton, and, after spending sev- 
eral weeks with Dr. Parker in professional observations and 
practice in the hospital there, he took passage to Chusan and 
Ningpo, and at the latter place established a mission-hospital, in 



TREATY BETWEEN CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES. 203 

which he has since been usefully employed in connection with 
various labors as a religious teacher.* 

The treaty which had been concluded between Great Britian 
and China had created the deepest interest in the commercial 
circles of both Europe and America ; and other nations were 
eager to obtain for themselves the commercial advantages which 
it was supposed were secured to England by its stipulations. In 
the summer of 1843 the government of the United States de- 
spatched an embassy to China, at the head of which was placed 
Hon. Caleb Gushing, for the purpose of opening diplomatic in- 
tercourse with the emperor. Mr. Cushing arrived at Macao 
in the following February. He was there met by the commis- 
sioner appointed by the emperor, and the terms of a treaty were 
mutually agreed upon, which was signed by the representatives 
of the two countries on the 3d of July, 1844, at Wanghia, a small 
town in the vicinity of Macao. The new treaty embodied all 
the important features of that which had been negotiated with 
the English ; and in addition provided for the erection of chapels, 
hospitals, and cemeteries, at each one of the five ports, and at the 
same time for other commercial advantages, which were also 
to be extended to all nations. Its effect has undoubtedly been 
to secure to the American missionaries and other American 
residents many privileges, which without it they would have 
had only by sufferance from their connection with the Eng- 
lish.! It has given to the missions from this country a per- 
manent footing in China, and distinctly recognized them as 
among the interests that are to receive the protection of the 
government. 

* This hospital appears to have been at first the joint establishment of Dr. 
Macgowan and Dr. Macartey, of the American Presbyterian Mission. Dr. 
Macgowan has now associated with him Eev. E. C. Lord as preacher, thus 
making what has always been found the most useful combination of labors 
among the Chinese. 

t At present it is said that we are held in special favor by the Chinese. 
Our merchants have undoubtedly profited by the fact, and our missionaries 
have on several occasions been saluted with peculiar regard, as belonging 
to " the nation of the flowery flag.' , 



204 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

But these fair prospects of the mission have also been shaded 
by afflictive events, which for a time diminished its efficiency 
and tended to discourage its members and friends. In Novem- 
ber, 1844, Mrs. Shuck died at Victoria, after a brief illness. 
She was the daughter of Rev. Addison Hall, of Virginia, and 
sailed from the United States with her husband in the autumn 
of 1835, destined for the mission in Siam. Their residence, 
however, was at Macao, where Mrs. Shuck early began to de- 
vote herself to the duties of her station. In her sudden death 
many tender ties were sundered and many fond hopes were 
blighted, for she was summoned away just at the beginning of 
the new era of the mission to which she had long been attach- 
ed.* Mr. Dean also, at nearly the same time, was obliged tem- 
porarily to abandon his post and return to the United States in 
order to recruit his health. He arrived in New York in March, 
1845, and after spending upwards of a year in this country,! 
returned with recruited energies to the station at Hongkong. 
The mission had also been strengthened by the arrival of 
Dr. Devan and his wife in the autumn of 1844. They sub- 
sequently removed to Canton, where a mission-house was erect- 
ed and several assistants were employed. Their connection, 
however, with the mission in China was brief. Mrs. Devan 
died, much lamented, at Canton, in October, 1846, and her 
husband, finding himself unable to reside permanently in the 
climate of the tropics, returned to the United States, and has 
since been transferred to the mission in France. Mr. Shuck 
also returned to this country in the spring of 1845, when, at his 
own request, he was transferred from the service of the Mis- 
sionary Union to that of the Southern Baptist Convention, by 
w T hom the mission buildings at Canton were purchased. But, 

* A valuable memoir of her useful life has been prepared by Rev. J. B. 
Jeter. 

t Mr. Dean was accompanied by Ko Abak, a Christian Chinaman, with 
whom he visited many of the churches in the Northern and Western States, 
every where addressing crowded auditories, on the religious condition of 
China. His visit was to many a church the beginning of a new interest in 
Christian missions. 



THE MISSIONS REINFORCED. 205 

amidst all these changes, some of them causing serious interrup- 
tion to the labors of the mission, its interests have continued to 
prosper in some humble manner, and its churches have gradu- 
ally increased. 

The station at Hongkong is represented as especially prom- 
ising. Though long regarded with doubt by the missionaries 
of other societies, and occupied by our own not without hesita- 
tion, this island is now admitted to possess advantages which 
belong to none of the neighboring ports. The people here are 
entirely accessible and free from many of the jealousies which 
characterize those of Canton and the districts around it. Here 
too, in connection with the station, and under the care of the 
missionaries, is the largest and most flourishing Christian church 
in all China. Rev. John Johnson and his wife * were added to 
the station in 1848, and Rev. E. C. Lord and his wife were 
added to that at Ningpo in the year preceding ; and the mis- 
sion, though still in its infancy, has already taken an honorable 
rank among the agencies which are now employed by a benig- 
nant Providence, in introducing the blessings of Christian civil- 
ization into the most ancient empire of the world. 

In the mission at Bangkok, after the close of the war in China, 
all preaching in the Siamese department was for a time suspended 
in consequence of the absence of Mr. Jones. He returned to the 
station in January, 1847, accompanied by Mrs. Jones and Miss 
Harriet H. Morse, the latter lady being appointed to teach in 
the Siamese schools. Since that period the labors of the mis- 
sionaries have been prosecuted with renewed hope, and have 
evidently been regarded by the people with less indifference 
than before. The presses have been generally kept in opera- 
tion under the direction of Messrs. Jones and Chandler, and 
have furnished multitudes of books and tracts in Siamese, 
Peguan and Chinese, for both departments of the mission. 

Among the Chinese, Mr. Goddard has continued the work of 
preaching and translating, to which he early devoted himself 

* Mrs. Johnson died soon after her arrival at Hongkong. 
19 



206 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

with singular assiduity, interrupted only by occasional ill health. 
The church of which he has had the charge, though frequently 
diminished by deaths and removals, now numbers twenty-three 
members, and constitutes the germ of a Christian society which 
is deemed exceedingly important on account of its bearings, 
not upon Bangkok alone, but upon the multitudes of Chinese 
who frequently visit that city in their widely extended traffic 
along the shores of Eastern Asia. In 1846 an accession was 
made to this department of the mission by the arrival of Rev. 
E. N. Jencks and his wife. The health of Mrs. Jencks, like 
that of most of the ladies who had preceded her at the station, 
began almost immediately to decline, and she has since died 
while on a passage with her husband to the United States. 
The vacancy thus created in the station at Bangkok has been 
supplied by the appointment of Rev. Samuel J. Smith, a young 
man born in the East and educated in this country, to whom 
the language of Siam is almost vernacular. He sailed in Octo- 
ber, 1848, and was designated especially to the work of preaching 
to the Siamese, — a work which he would be able to enter upon 
soon after he should arrive at Bangkok. 

In 1843 several meetings of both English and American 
missionaries to the Chinese, of different denominations, were 
held at Hongkong, for the purpose of adopting measures to 
secure a standard version of the sacred Scriptures in the lan- 
guage of the country.* After repeated consultations it was 

* The entire Bible had long before been translated into Chinese by Rev. 
Dr. Morrison, the earliest English missionary to China, assisted by Rev. W. 
Milne. It was printed at Macao in 1818, at a press sent out by the London 
Missionary Society. Another translation was also made by Rev. Dr. Marsh- 
man of the Serampore Baptist Mission, which was printed at the mission press 
in 1822. The expenses of both these editions were principally defrayed by 
the British and Foreign Bible Society. Both have been pronounced unusually 
faithful and correct translations, considering the circumstances in which they 
were made, though that by Dr. Marshman, on account of its foreign dress, has 
never been much circulated in China. A dictionary of the Chinese was also 
prepared by Dr. Morrison, and published in 1823 in six quarto volumes, at 
an expense of £12,000. For an account of the various missionary labors in 
China, see Medhurst's History of China, and Williams's Middle Kingdom, 
vol. ii, ch. 19. 



IMPORTANCE OF THESE MISSIONS. 207 

proposed that a general committee should be formed, who should 
submit a portion of the New Testament for translation to each 
of the several missionary stations that might be willing to share 
in the undertaking ; that the portions thus translated should be 
returned for the revision of the general committee, and by them 
submitted for final examination and approval to the Bible Soci- 
eties of England or America. The project was at first regarded 
with favor by the American Baptist missionaries, and by them 
recommended to the Board, who authorized the removal of Mr. 
Goddard from Bangkok to Hongkong in order to engage in 
the work of translation. His departure however at that time, 
in the absence of Mr. Jones from Bangkok, would have left the 
station there entirely unoccupied, and it was on that account 
delayed. Since then doubts have been entertained respecting 
the practicability of the plan, and some disapprobation of the 
arrangement having been expressed by the American and For- 
eign Bible Society, the missionaries, with the approbation of 
the Board, have decided not to enter into it but to make a ver- 
sion of their own. This Mr. Goddard and Mr. Dean have 
been for some time engaged in executing. In order to facilitate 
the work, and to prosecute it in the most favorable circumstances, 
Mr. Goddard has left the station at Bangkok and is now settled 
at Ningpo. The translation of the Scriptures into Chinese is 
a task of peculiar difficulty, arising from the genius of the lan- 
guage ; but they have already completed several books of the 
New Testament which are soon to be printed, and it is hoped 
that their version when finally accomplished, with the use of all 
the aids at their command, will not be inferior to any other by 
whatever hands it may be executed. 

If the importance of these missions may be estimated by the 
extent of the countries in which they are established, or the 
numbers and characters of the people for whom they are de- 
signed, we may surely rank them among the foremost of those 
in which our denomination is now engaged. It is not its past 
success which gives character to either. The people of Siam 
have thus far entirely refused the gospel, while but here and 



208 MISSIONS IN SIAM AND CHINA. 

there a few among the Chinese have embraced its truths ; 
yet the present attitude of each of these missions, thus offering 
the blessings of Christianity to two powerful nations, is one of 
unusual interest. Their career and their destiny will undoubt- 
edly be greatly affected by the changes which may take place 
in the East, — now just beginning to be deeply stirred by the 
influences of western commerce and western civilization. The 
events of every month are accumulating new proofs of the amaz- 
ing superiority of Christianity over all the systems of oriental 
faith, and are loosening the hold of Buddhism upon the minds 
of the people. The religion of the Bible is thus gaining a freer 
course and a fairer opportunity, for continued progress. 

Among the Chinese the mission is just entering upon a new 
era of its history. Long excluded from the empire and confined 
to her exiled and wandering people, it has at length planted 
itself within the walls ; and, side by side with the missions of other 
societies and other nations, it has commenced the work of giving 
the gospel to the most populous country of the globe. Its sta- 
tions at Hongkong and at Ningpo are fortunately selected, and its 
missionaries are men of large experience and of tried wisdom. 
Its character partakes of the grandeur of the field which it oc- 
cupies, and its prospects, dim and shadowy as they now appear, 
open far into the vistas of that eventful future which is mani- 
festly in reserve for China. 



MISSION IN ASSAM. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Country of Assam and its Inhabitants. — Reasons for establishing a Mis- 
sion there. — Messrs. Brown and Cutter go from Burmah to Assam. — They 
settle at Sadiya. — Arrival of Messrs. Bronsonand Thomas. — Death of Mr. 
Thomas. — Labors of the Missionaries. — Mr. Bronson removes to Jaipur. 

— Cooperation of British Residents. — Insurrection of the Khamtis. — Mr. 
Bronson settles among the Nagas. — Arrival of other Missionaries. — Sta- 
tion at Sibsagar. — Station at Nowgong. — Generous aid of British Officers. 

— Translation of the Gospels. — Mr. Barker at Gowahatti. — Growth of the 
Mission at the several Stations. — Schools. — Conversions to Christianity. 

— Need of Reinforcement. — Appointment of new Missionaries. — Present 
Prospects of the Mission. 

The country of Assam lies on the northwestern frontier of 
Burmah, and from that frontier stretches across the plains of the 
Brahmaputra, from seventy to one hundred miles in breadth, 
towards the mountains of Himmaleh ; while on the northeast it 
extends to the borders of China. Its inhabitants are of many 
different races, but are known by the general name of Shyans 
or Sbans — a term which, in the changes of Indian language, 
has given rise to the English name Assam. The country was 
formerly independent, but in 1822 it was added to the Burman 
empire, and since 1826 has been wholly under English rule. 
The tribes which occupy it differ widely in character and de- 
grees of civilization, and are known under various names, — the 
Assamese, the Khamtis, the Singphos, and the Nagas, being the 
most numerous and important. 

The attention of the Board was first directed to these people 
through the agency of Captain Francis Jenkins, commissioner 
of the governor-general of India for Assam, who resided at 
Gowahatti. This gentleman, distinguished alike as a philan- 



212 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

thropist and a ruler, conceived the liveliest interest in the sin- 
gular population whom he was appointed to govern, and in 
1834 addressed a letter to Eev. W. H. Pearce, an English 
Baptist missionary, and Mr. E. C. Trevelyan, an officer of the 
civil service at Calcutta, making known their character and con- 
dition, and requesting them to invite some of the missionaries of 
the American Baptists to come and settle in the country. The 
invitation was sent to the members of the mission at Maulmain, 
and by them it was conditionally accepted and immediately 
commended to the favorable consideration of the Board, by 
whom the question of its acceptance could alone be decided. It 
was accompanied by an offer on the part of Captain Jenkins to 
contribute a thousand rupees in aid of the mission on the arri- 
val of the first missionary, and a thousand more on the estab- 
lishment of a printing press. The proposal reached the man- 
agers in 1835, a few months after the meeting of the Conven- 
tion at Richmond, at a period when they had been specially 
directed by that body to enter every unoccupied field that 
should be presented, and to extend their missionary operations 
as widely as possible. They were therefore already prepared 
favorably to entertain an invitation to enter a new district, 
which thus emanated from a source fitted, on every account, to 
command their confidence and respect. 

The plan of establishing a mission in Assam was also recom- 
mended by other important considerations. The language of 
the country was similar to the Burman, and might easily be 
acquired by a missionary who had resided in that empire, while 
the characters used in printing were essentially the same. The 
plan seemed also likely to promote a nearer access to the Chi- 
nese than had hitherto been attained, under the exclusive policy 
at that time pursued by the imperial government. It was 
hoped that beneath the protection afforded by the East India 
Company, missionaries might join the caravans that yearly 
traded to the interior of China, and thus, while the jealous 
mandarins were excluding foreigners from the ports, they might 
plant Christianity in the heart of the empire. In this manner 



THE MISSION COMMENCED AT SADIYA. 213 

it was expected that a chain of missionary posts might be estab- 
lished among kindred races, commencing in Siam and stretch- 
ing through the Tenasserim provinces and the Burman empire 
into Assam, — and thus circling the western frontiers of China 
with influences and agencies that must sooner or later penetrate 
its hitherto impassable barriers. 

In these circumstances, the managers determined to accept 
the proposal of Captain Jenkins, and immediately referred the 
matter to the missionaries at Maulmain for the arrangement of 
the details and the execution of the plan. By them Messrs. 
Brown and Cutter, who had then just been obliged to abandon the 
station at Rangoon, had already been appointed to commence the 
mission at Sadiya, — the place which was recommended as the 
most eligible for the purpose. These gentlemen were deemed 
eminently qualified for the undertaking, Mr. Brown having for 
two years been engaged in the study of the Burman language, 
and Mr. Cutter having had considerable experience in eastern 
printing. They reached Calcutta with their families in Sep- 
tember, 1835, where they provided themselves with a printing 
press, a standing press, a hundred reams of paper and other ma- 
terials for printing, — receiving at the same time the assurance 
from the Board that an additional press and a complete appa- 
ratus should soon be sent them from this country. At Calcutta 
they embarked in boats on the Brahmaputra, and after a tedious 
passage of four months through the windings of this far-rolling 
river, they reached Sadiya, the place of their destination, on the 
23d of March, 1836. They were welcomed to the country by 
Captain Jenkins, who immediately fulfilled his promise to the 
mission, and has since repeatedly proved himself its liberal ben- 
efactor and active friend. 

Sadiya is the name applied both to the district and its principal 
village. They are situated in the northeastern portion of 
Assam, four hundred miles north of Ava, and about half that 
distance from Yunnan, a large mart of trade within the boun- 
daries of China. The town was found by the missionaries to 
be " beautifully situated in the centre of a spacious plain, sur- 



214 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

rounded by mountains which form an amphitheatre and bound 
the horizon on all sides, except for a short distance at the south- 
west." The people among whom they originally designed to 
establish the mission were the Khamtis, who had been repre- 
sented as the most interesting portion of the population, and as 
decidedly superior to the Burmans in intelligence and charac- 
ter. They found, however, that the great body of these people 
dwelt farther east, and they accordingly commenced their labors 
among the Assamese and other native tribes composing the 
heterogeneous population of Sadiya. So soon as a suitable 
building could be erected, the ladies of the mission established 
schools — Mrs. Brown for boys and Mrs. Cutter for girls — both 
of which soon became well attended and flourishing. Mean- 
while Mr. Brown and Mr. Cutter were exploring the field, 
arranging their future labors, and giving their attention to the 
study of the language, in the reduction and printing of which 
they decided to adopt the Roman character instead of the Bur- 
man, or any other of the oriental alphabets, — a decision which 
was subsequently approved by the Board, and has uniformly 
been found advantageous in the instruction of the people. Mr. 
Cutter soon printed a spelling book for the use of the schools, 
and Mr. Brown began to prepare works for the press both in 
Assamese and in several dialects of the Shyan. 

On the 17th of October, 1836, Rev. Miles Bronson and Rev. 
Jacob Thomas, with their wives, sailed from Boston for Calcutta, 
having been appointed missionaries for the people of Assam. 
They took with them the additional printing pres3 which had 
been promised, together with a full supply of all the requisite 
materials for printing, and after a prosperous voyage arrived at 
Calcutta on the 11th of the following April. In a few days, 
they again started in a budgerow, on their long and circuitous 
passage up the Brahmaputra for Sadiya. The passage was 
begun under the most favorable auspices, and was prosecuted 
against the rapid current of the winding river week after week, 
till it was nearly accomplished, when it was interrupted by a 
most afflictive event, and at length closed amidst circumstances 



DEATH OF MR. THOMAS. 215 

of the deepest sorrow and mourning. Within a few days' jour- 
ney of Sadiya, Mr. Bronson became dangerously ill of the jun- 
gle fever, and as it was impossible to hasten the budgerow 
forward in consequence of the narrowness of the stream and 
the rapidity of the current, Mr. Thomas started in a small boat 
in advance of his companions, in order to procure medical assist- 
ance. Using the utmost expedition he had come within sight of 
the mission premises at Sadiya, when two trees whose roots 
were united fell from the loosened bank of the river directly 
upon the boat in which he was seated, crushing the boat, and 
causing Mr. Thomas immediately to sink and drown. An event 
so sudden and calamitous might well chasten the hopes of the 
surviving missionaries, and impart to all their plans and labors 
a graver and more serious energy. The remains of Mr. Thom- 
as were taken to Sadiya and interred in the mission premises, 
and a few days afterwards, on the 17th of July, his afflicted 
widow and companions in travel were welcomed by the mission 
families to the place of their destination. 

The labors of missionaries in founding their stations and com- 
mencing their system of measures for the conversion of a hea- 
then people, are substantially the same in every land. The open- 
ing of schools, the operations of the press, conversations at the 
zayat and other places of public resort, together with frequent 
excursions into the country around them, must always be made 
the principal agencies on which they rely for the promulgation 
of the gospel. Their object is to invite the attention of the peo- 
ple to the claims of a new religion, and hence they make use of 
every occasion which presents itself, to contrast its most im- 
pressive and striking doctrines with the empty mummeries of 
heathenism. Such were also the methods now adopted by the 
members of the mission at Sadiya. The labors of Mr. Brown 
were devoted principally to the Assamese and the Khamtis ; 
those of Mr. Bronson were designed originally for the Singphos ; 
while Mr. Cutter was constantly employed at the two presses 
now at the station, and in superintending the schools which 
were under the immediate charge of the ladies of the mission. 



216 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

In establishing the mission in Assam, the Board had been 
governed in no small degree by the expectation that they 
should thus open an avenue by which the gospel might be more 
effectually carried to the northern parts of Burmah and Siain, and 
also introduced into the upper provinces of China. Their in- 
structions to the missionaries all contemplated this result as the 
ultimate object of the undertaking, whatever subsidiary ends 
might be accomplished by the way. It was in accordance with 
this general idea that Mr. Kincaid attempted the journey from 
Ava to Sadiya in the early part of 1837. As has been already 
narrated, he penetrated the country as far as Mogaung, where 
he met multitudes of Kakhyens, an interesting and susceptible 
people, whom he conjectured to be the same as the Karens, and 
also the same as those called Singphos by the English in Assam.* 
He failed however of reaching Sadiya, and from Mogaung re- 
turned to Ava, amidst the imminent perils incident to a wide 
spread insurrection. For the same general object the mission- 
aries at Sadiya made several excursions eastward, through the 
districts known as the Shyan provinces, and proceeded almost 
to the confines of China. The result of these excursions, how- 
ever, usually satisfied them that, even without entering China, 
there were more races of heathen already accessible than it was 
possible for them to instruct in the doctrines of the gospel ; but 
the favorite plan was not wholly abandoned by the Board till 
the barriers of the celestial empire were broken down by the 
arms of England, and its ports were opened to the missionaries 
of every land. 

In May, 1838, Mr. Bronson and his family removed to Jai- 
pur, one of the principal ports of the East India Company in 
Assam, situated on the Dihing river, at a distance of three or 
four days' journey in a southwesterly direction from Sadiya. 
His object in removing was to be nearer the settlements of the 

* Many questions have been raised concerning the Singphos and other races 
in the Shyan provinces, which are still unsettled. Too little is thus far known 
of these various tribes to enable us to judge confidently of their identity with 
other races in the East. 



INSURRECTION OF THE KHAMTIS. 217 

Singphos, the people to whom he had been specially designated. 
The measure was strongly urged by the other missionaries, and 
also by Mr. Bruce, a warm friend of the mission, who resided at 
Jaipur as the agent for promoting the culture of the tea plant in 
the country, — then just becoming the favorite enterprise of the 
East India Company. The station was also recommended by 
its proximity to the Nagas, a people dwelling among the neigh- 
boring hills, who had excited the interest of the British residents, 
and had been visited by the missionaries. Mr. Bronson and his 
family were cordially welcomed at Jaipur by Mr. Bruce and the 
other English residents, and by the former gentleman they were 
received into his house and provided with many comforts, until 
arrangements could be made for their settlement. The officers 
who were living there contributed liberally to aid the infant 
station, and several of the ladies of their families joined with the 
missionaries in opening schools and in teaching the rude heathen 
children who came for instruction. At about the same period 
Captain Jenkins, who was the originator of the mission and had 
ever been the faithful guardian of all its interests, also contribut- 
ed five hundred rupees for replenishing the fonts of type, and 
also offered iive hundred more towards the support of a super- 
intendent of the schools whenever one should be appointed by 
the Board. Indeed so warm and generous was the interest felt 
by this gentleman in the prosperity of the mission, that he made 
frequent communications directly to the Board, setting forth its 
condition and wants, and recommending the measures he deem- 
ed important for its growth, and coupling with his suggestions 
the most liberal offers of aid in carrying them into execution. 

The operations of the mission at each of its stations were 
quietly and regularly advancing, when they were suddenly 
interrupted by an insurrection of the Khamtis, which threat- 
ened the lives of the missionaries and for a time put an end to 
their labors. The East India Company had been gradually 
extending their sway over the country, until several of the 
more powerful tribes combined in an attempt to regain the in- 
dependence which they had lost. The insurrection commenced 
20 



218 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

with an attack upon Sadiya on the 28th of January, 1839, and 
extended through several of the neighboring villages. A large 
number of the soldiers and adherents of the English were slain 
in the fierceness of the first assault, and quiet was not restored 
till the natives had been made severely to feel the pressure of 
English power. The missionaries at Sadiya fled to the can- 
tonments of the troops, where they were protected by the 
English officers till the insurrection was quelled, when they 
removed to Jaipur. At the time of the outbreak Mr. Bronson 
was absent on a tour among the Nagas, concerning whom he 
was making many interesting observations preparatory to the 
establishment of a station for their benefit. On hearing of the 
revolt he hastened back, amidst many perils, to his family at 
Jaipur, where he found the schools broken up and the whole 
population distracted with alarms and rumors of approaching 
war. 

At Sadiya the people continued in still greater agitation. 
Many of them were leaving the town, and those who remained 
were in so disturbed a condition that it was deemed best imme- 
diately to remove the entire mission to Jaipur. The expenses 
of the removal were generously defrayed by Mr. Bruce, and the 
new station promised many advantages which had never been 
attained at the old ; yet many months elapsed before the labors 
of the missionaries were fully resumed, or the mission entirely 
recovered from the shock it had sustained. In a few months 
the military and civil officers followed the missionaries to 
Jaipur, and Sadiya, deserted by its inhabitants, " was aban- 
doned to the tigers and jackals." The missionaries, however, 
in the interruption of their ordinary labors, devoted their at- 
tention the more earnestly to the acquisition of the several 
languages spoken by the people around them, and to the pre- 
paration of books for the press. Mr. Brown soon completed 
the translation of the Gospel of Matthew, in Assamese and in 
Khamti, and Mr. Cutter, having been to Calcutta for a supply 
of additional type, returned in April, 1839, and commenced 
printing the books which had been prepared. 



CHANGES AND AFFLICTIONS. 219 

In January, 1840, Mr. Bronson made a second visit to the 
Nagas, who dwelt among the neighboring hills, and finding 
them now in a quiet condition and eager for instruction, he de- 
termined at once to establish among them the mission which 
had long been contemplated. He was encouraged in the un- 
dertaking by the generous interest expressed in these people by 
the English officers and residents, of whom Mr. Bruce con- 
tributed five hundred rupees and Captain Hannay two hundred 
and fifty. for the establishment of schools. Mr. Bronson moved 
his family to the hills in March, and having already acquired 
the language and being furnished with books, he immediately 
commenced his labors among the people there. 

On the 14th of May the mission, which was now extended 
to several different tribes in Assam, was gladdened by the ar- 
rival of Rev. Cyrus Barker and his wife, and Miss Rhoda 
Bronson, sister of Rev. Mr. Bronson, who had sailed from 
the United States in the preceding October. These missiona- 
ries were originally designated to the department among the 
Nagas, but on their arrival at Jaipur, Mr. Barker, finding that 
Mr. Bronson had already removed to the hills, made prepara- 
tions to engage in labors for the Assamese. Miss Bronson, 
however, soon joined her brother at the new station which he 
had commenced among the Nagas. 

The year following the arrival of the new missionaries was 
marked by many changes not unmingled with afflictions. Mr. 
and Mrs. Brown were obliged to leave the mission and make a 
passage to Calcutta for the benefit of their health. Mr. Bron- 
son had been settled among the Nagas but a few months when 
he and several of his family were affiicted with severe illness, 
and obliged in consequence to abandon the station and remove 
to Jaipur. But even here health did not return to all; the 
constitution of Miss Bronson, though originally strong, yielded 
to the fever which she took among the hills, and she died at 
Jaipur on the 8th of December, 1840, ere she had scarcely 
begun her work as a missionary. Mr. Barker resided for a 
time at Jaipur, engaged in studying the language of the As- 



# 
220 MISSION IN ASSAM. 



samese, and making frequent excursions into the country for the 
purpose of selecting a place for his future residence. He at 
length determined on Sibsagar, a flourishing post of the East 
India Company, on a branch of the Brahmaputra, three days' 
journey below Jaipur. With the approbation of his brethren, 
he removed to this place with his family in May, 1841, and in 
the following July he was joined by Mr. and Mrs. Brown. 
The expectations which were entertained concerning Jaipur 
had not been fully realized. The population had diminished, 
and the efforts of the East India Company to promote the cul- 
ture of tea had been partly withdrawn and bestowed on other 
places. In addition to this, the station had proved less healthy 
than was expected, and the missionaries accordingly determin- 
ed, without wholly abandoning Jaipur, to make Sibsagar the 
principal seat of the mission. The tea culture here promised 
to be a permanent interest, and with a population of eight thou- 
sand, with a salubrious climate and many advantages derived 
from the residence of the English, the place commended itself 
to their judgment as the most suitable which could be selected, 
especially for labors among the Assamese. 

Mr. Bronson, on the recovery of his health, deeming it no 
longer wise to return to the station among the hills, removed, 
in October, 1841, to Nowgong, a flourishing town in the midst 
of a populous district in Central Assam, to which he had been 
specially invited by Capt. J. T. Gordon, an English officer who 
had long been a friend and benefactor of the mission. The 
population of the town and the district was made up of many 
different races, among whom the Nagas were quite numerous. 
But now that the station among these people had been aban- 
doned, and both the Singphos and Khamtis were still compar- 
atively inaccessible, the missionaries at all the stations were 
obliged in a great degree to restrict their labors to the Assamese 
population. With the aid of Captain Gordon, Mrs. Bronson 
soon opened a large mission-school at Nowgong, in which two 
native Christians from Calcutta were employed as assistants, 



PRINTING- OPERATIONS. 221 

and which has continued to flourish now for many years, and 
has proved a means of great good to its pupils. 

Yet amidst all these changes, some of them of the most afflic- 
tive character, the blessing of Heaven was not withheld from 
the operations of the mission. A large amount of labor was 
accomplished by the missionaries, and at Sibsagar two converts 
early embraced Christianity and were baptized. Each of the 
stations also continued still to receive the generous benefactions 
of the pious and philanthropic officers and residents attached to 
the civil and the military service of the East India Company. 
Among these, Major Jenkins — for this is now his rank — has 
not only fulfilled his early promises to the mission, but has also 
presented to it a large printing press, and has annually contrib- 
uted five hundred rupees for its support. Others have rendered 
aid scarcely less valuable and important, by contributions of 
money, by attentions to the comfort of the missionaries, and by 
the erection of commodious dwellings and other buildings for 
their accommodation. It may indeed be questioned whether, in 
any other of our missions, so liberal contributions have been 
made and so uniform and generous interest has been manifested 
by the English residents of the country. These gentlemen are 
the representatives of the power that has subjugated the coun- 
tries of the East ; but by the humane and generous policy which 
they and many of their associates have adopted, both here and 
in Burmah, they have smoothed the horrid front of war and 
disarmed conquest of its terrors, — while, by their efforts in be- 
half of Christian missions among the people, they have more 
than compensated them for the loss of their former independence. 

Mr. Cutter still continued at Jaipur superintending the opera- 
tions of the presses under his charge. Though these operations 
were somewhat restricted by the absence of the other mission- 
aries, they were yet by no means unimportant. School books 
in different languages were supplied to all the numerous schools, 
and the Gospels of Matthew and John together with the Acts of 
the Apostles, all which had been translated by Mr. Brown, were 
carried through the press early in the summer of 1842. The 
20* 



222 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

station at Jaipur, however, had now become inconvenient as a 
place for printing, besides being too much exposed to the irrup- 
tions of the still agitated Singphos and Nagas of the district. 
In the winter of 1842-3 the place was attacked by parties of 
insurgents, and it was several weeks before they were entirely 
subdued. During this time Mr. Cutter was obliged to take 
down the presses and hide them away with all the types belong- 
ing to the establishment, in order to secure them from the perils 
with which they were threatened. The presses, however, were 
soon set up, and their operations were resumed, but their ex- 
posed condition rendered it necessary to fix on some other station 
at which to place the printing establishment of the mission. Af- 
ter a full consultation of the missionaries and an interchange of 
views with the Board, it was determined that the presses should 
be removed to Sibsagar, and the removal was accomplished in 
November, 1843. In anticipation of the settlement of Mr. 
Cutter at Sibsagar, Mr. Barker, with the advice of his associates, 
went forth to seek a suitable place in Central Assam for the 
location of another branch of the mission. He went first to 
Tezpur, but after a few weeks removed to Gowahatti, the resi- 
dence of Major Jenkins, and the most important town in the 
province, and here commenced a new station to take the place 
of Jaipur, which was now abandoned. 

By the close of the year 1843 the missionaries were fully 
established at their respective stations of Sibsagar, Now T gong 
and Gowahatti, at which they have since continued to prosecute 
their labors with comparatively few interruptions. These la- 
bors have consisted principally of preaching, translating and 
teaching, and have been chiefly confined to the Assamese 
population instead of embracing the Khamtis, the Singphos and 
the Nagas, as was originally designed. At each of the stations 
a church was soon constituted, and though during the early 
years of the mission but few were converted to Christianity, 
yet these infant churches w T ere gradually strengthened by an 
occasional accession. Scattered among the Assamese population, 
especially in the district of Gowahatti, are multitudes of Brah- 



NOWGONG ORPHAN INSTITUTION. 223 

mins, whose fanatical devotion to their own superstition has often 
occasioned violent opposition to the mission. It has also occa- 
sionally encountered the more subtile and secret hostility of a 
few English missionaries who are scattered throughout the 
province, preaching the dogmas of the " Tractarian " party of 
the English church. The commissioner, however, and many of 
the principal officers connected with the service have continued 
to give to it their hearty and most efficient support, and every 
year of its progress has opened with brighter prospects and 
been crowned with more encouraging results. 

Connected with each of the stations are one or more mission 
schools, in which children and youth are specially instructed in 
the doctrines of the gospel. In addition to these, schools have 
been opened in the neighboring towns and villages, which are 
instructed in part by the ladies of the mission, aided by English 
ladies residing there, and in part by native assistants either be- 
longing to the country or obtained from Calcutta. These schools 
have become very numerous, and contain in all scarcely less 
than a thousand pupils. 

But the school to which the missionaries have attached the 
highest importance, and which has thus far been most productive 
of spiritual results, is the Orphan Institution at Nowgong. Its 
design was to gather from all parts of the province, destitute 
children bereft of their parents, and train them, under Christian 
influences, to a knowledge of useful occupations and of the gos- 
pel. The institution was projected by Mr. Bronson, with the 
advice of the other members of the mission, and was established 
by the contributions of the English residents in Assam. Up- 
wards of twelve hundred rupees were contributed at the outset 
for the erection of a suitable building, and the institution Avent 
into operation in the beginning of 1844. During the first year 
of its existence it contained twelve pupils, and the number has 
since been increased to upwards of twenty. The amount re- 
quired for its support has increased from year to year, as its 
wants have been multiplied ; yet such has been the generosity of 
its friends, that its expenses until of late have been defrayed 
without cost to the mission. 



224 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

Mr. Brown has been steadily advancing in the translation of 
the Scriptures, leaving to the other missionaries the work of pre- 
paring tracts and books to be used in the schools. The whole 
of the New Testament has been translated, and an edition of 
it printed by Mr. Cutter. The translator is now engaged in 
revising and perfecting his work, and expects immediately to 
enter upon the task of rendering the other parts of the Bible 
into Assamese. At Sibsagar Messrs. Brown and Cutter have 
also commenced a monthly journal of a religious and miscella- 
neous character, which is called Orunodoi, or " Rising Dawn." 
The first number was published in January, 1846, and since 
that period it has attained a wide circulation among the native 
population, and has been found in many respects to be more 
efficient than ordinary tracts in breaking down their prejudices 
and enlightening their ignorance. 

But amidst all the favorable influences which from the be- 
ginning had attended the mission, and all the labors which had 
been performed for its advancement, but few converts were 
made to Christianity during the early years of its history. The 
missionaries at their respective stations baptized only here and 
there a solitary wanderer from heathenism, who had embraced 
the new religion with a living faith in its truths. At length in 
1846, after nearly ten years of toil and of hope had passed 
away, a brighter day dawned upon the mission. The elder 
pupils of the Orphan Institution at Nowgong, who had experi- 
enced most of the humane charity which the gospel enjoins, were 
also among the first to experience its life-giving power. Seven 
of them were baptized during the year, and with them others 
at the same station ; and from this period each of the three 
churches connected with the mission has received frequent acces- 
sions, until they now together number upwards of fifty disciples 
of the Saviour, who have been reclaimed from the superstition in 
which they were educated, and trained to the worship and 
service of God. The church at Gowahatti, which was not or- 
ganized till 1845, at the end of two years contained twenty- 
seven members. 



NEED OF REINFORCEMENT. 225 

It is an unvarying law of the missionary enterprise that every 
successful result imposes the necessity of additional effort. Not 
to advance is always to recede. The plans of one year, if faith- 
fully executed, only lead to larger plans for the years that fol- 
low. The station which a single missionary may commence, will 
soon require the labors of several in order fully to maintain and 
carry it forward. The law finds ample illustrations in the his- 
tory of every mission that is earnestly prosecuted, and in the 
history of none are they more numerous than of that among the 
people of Assam. Its members soon found that the field which 
lay around them was far too extensive to be cultivated by the 
few scattered individuals who had entered it, and that the work 
which they had undertaken was constantly outgrowing their 
own ability to perform it. We accordingly find them, at the 
period of the earliest prosperity of the mission, addressing to 
the managers earnest appeals for additional laborers, and often 
filled with sorrow and dismay because they could not be sent 
in the numbers which their own success had rendered necessa- 
ry. But amidst the multiplied cares and labors thus devolving 
on the members of the mission, the health of nearly every one 
became sensibly enfeebled. Mr. and Mrs. Cutter were oblig- 
ed for a time to leave their station, and Mrs. Brown, after 
being accompanied to Calcutta by her husband, took passage 
with her children for the United States, and arrived in Febru- 
ary, 1847. So disheartening did their condition become in 
consequence of the excessive labors imposed by the exigencies 
of the mission, that in 1845 several of tlie English officers, who 
were witnesses of their failing health, expressed to the mana- 
gers their strong convictions of the necessity of reinforcing the 
mission. These appeals, however, like those which had pre- 
ceded them, found the Board embarrassed by a debt which 
every year was increasing, and perplexed by the sectional dif- 
ferences which led to the formation of the Missionary Union. 

But they were not forgotten or lightly considered. So soon 
as the embarrassments had passed away the Executive Com- 
mittee of the Union gave their earliest attention to the wants of 



226 MISSION IN ASSAM. 

the mission. The arrival of Mrs. Brown, and the representa- 
tions which she gave, made these wants more sensibly felt, and 
early in 1847, two missionaries, Rev. A. H. Danforth and Rev. 
Ira J. Stoddard, offered their services, and were appointed to 
Assam, — the former to join the station at Gowahatti, the latter 
to relieve Mr. Bronson in the charge of the Orphan Institution 
at Nowgong. In November of that year these gentlemen and 
their wives sailed for Calcutta. 

The present condition and prospects of this mission are fitted 
to awaken the most animated hopes in the minds of its friends 
and supporters. It still continues to receive the liberal aid of 
the officers and gentlemen attached to the English service in 
Assam, — a fact which of itself is no slight testimonial to its use- 
fulness. Its schools are highly valued by the people, who 
desire their establishment in far greater numbers than can at 
present be accomplished. In addition to this it is already evi- 
dent that Christian influences are beginning to loosen the hold 
which Buddhism has had on their minds. Its dogmas are less 
generally believed than formerly, and many even of the priests 
openly confess the superiority of the gospel. With the auspi- 
cious beginning which has been made, and with the incidental 
advantages derived from the favor of the English residents, the 
mission, in its increased strength and numbers, now promises to 
confer invaluable blessings upon the people of Assam, and to 
contribute in no unimportant degree to the ultimate triumph of 
the Christian faith. 




^BOJBSOIUB O StCTL 



X'on. Hast from GreeirsviclL 



MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 



CHAPTEE XVIIL 

Country of the Teloogoos. — Origin of the Mission. — Arrival of Eev. Mr. Day 
at Vizagapatam. — His settlement at Madras. — Visit to Bellary. — Difficul- 
ties Encountered by a solitary Missionary. — His Removal to Nellore. — 
Arrival of Rev. Mr. Van Husen. — Mr. Day visits Madras. — Caste among 
the Teloogoos. — Need of a Translation of the Scriptures. — Growth of the 
Mission. — Health of the Missionaries fails. — They leave Nellore and re- 
turn to the United States. — State of the Mission in their Absence. — Re- 
turn of Mr. Day and Appointment of Rev. Mr. Jewett in 1848. 

On the western coast of the Bay of Bengal, over a region 
stretching nearly eight hundred miles from the northern part of 
the Carnatic to the borders of Orissa, are scattered a people 
known as the Telingas, or Teloogoos. They are supposed to be 
the descendants of one of the ancient races of India whose dy- 
nasty once ruled over many nations, and, though now subject to 
different jurisdictions, they are still united by a common lan- 
guage and by common national traditions. They are generally 
estimated at upwards of ten millions in number, of whom three 
millions dwell within the northern circars or collectorates of the 
Presidency of Madras and are subject to its government, while 
the remainder are under the sway of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 
or Golcondah. Though distinct from the races by whom they are 
surrounded, they are without a country ruled by their power or 
known by their name ; and far beyond the limits of their peculiar 
territory they are scattered over the whole of southern India, 
and are particularly numerous in the districts of Tanjore and 
Mysore, and also in the city of Madras. Their largest city 
is Masulapatam, which has a population of 80,000. Their 
other leading cities are Nellore, Guntoor, Vizagapatam, and Cica- 
21 



230 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS 

cole, Burhampore, and Ganjam, which contain from 12,000 to 
20,000 inhabitants each. The religion of the Teloogoos is 
Brahminism, and, as in the other tribes of Hindostan, the sys- 
tem of caste prevails among them, dividing them into different 
classes between which it establishes impassable barriers. Every 
separate trade or occupation is a caste by itself, and the members 
of each, with their families and relatives, are prevented by the 
system from ever becoming connected and even from associating 
with those belonging to another. 

The attention of our Missionary Board was directed to these 
people by Rev. Amos Sutton, of the mission of the English Gen- 
eral Baptists in Orissa, during his visit to the United States in 
1835. They had long before attracted the notice of the London 
Missionary Society, who in 1805 stationed its earliest mission- 
aries in India among the Teloogoos at Vizagapatam. These 
missionaries soon died, and, though others were sent to succeed 
them, the station had often been vacant, and at the time of Mr. 
Sutton's visit to America there was but a single missionary in 
all the region inhabited by the Teloogoos. Though this district 
was widely separated from the other missions of the Board, yet 
its proximity to the Tamil missions of the American Board on 
the south, and to those of the English General Baptists on the 
north, combined with its then unoccupied condition in rendering 
it a most desirable field for Christian effort, and in awakening 
a strong disposition to make it the seat of a new mission. Much 
also had already been done by the missionaries of other societies ; 
a grammar and a dictionary had been prepared for the special 
purpose of aiding the English in acquiring the language, and 
the members of the Baptist Mission at Serampore had made a 
translation of the entire Bible, of which the New Testament 
and several books of the Old had already been printed.* The 

* Two translations had been made of the New Testament, — one by the mis- 
sionaries at Serampore, the other by a missionary of the London Society. 
Both these had been printed, — the former at Serampore, the latter at Madras. 
The Pentateuch and some other parts of the Old Testament had also been 
printed at different periods by the Madras Bible Society. 



ARRIVAL OF THE FIRST MISSIONARIES. 231 

Teloogoos, too, were said to be among the most interesting and 
intelligent of the peoples of India, possessing a language of un- 
usual copiousness and variety, and evincing tastes and capacities 
which, it was thought, would give them peculiar aptitude for 
appreciating spiritual truth and Christian civilization. These 
considerations, united with the special instructions of the Con- 
vention then recently adopted at its meeting in Richmond, 
directing them to establish new missions in every unoccupied 
field where there was a reasonable prospect of success, decided 
the Board to comply with the recommendations of Rev. Mr. 
Sutton, and to establish a mission among the Teloogoos. 

It was on the 20th of September, 1835, that Rev. Samuel S. 
Day and his wife, and Rev. E. L. Abbott, received their public 
instructions as missionaries to these people ; and two days after- 
wards they sailed from Boston in the ship Louvre, bound to Cal- 
cutta, in company with Rev. Mr. Malcom and a large number of 
missionaries designated to the East, among whom was also Rev. 
Mr. Sutton of Orissa. On their arrival at Calcutta in Febru- 
ary, 1836, it was deemed best that Mr. Abbott should become 
connected with the mission amonsr the Karens, which was then 
suffering for the want of additional laborers. He accordingly 
proceeded to the Burman empire, while Mr. and Mrs. Day im- 
mediately repaired to Yizagapatam, where they commenced the 
study of the language under the instruction of a learned Brah- 
min, and with the aids of an English and Teloogoo dictionary, 
a grammar, a translation of the New Testament, and other 
books which had been prepared by the missionaries who pre- 
ceded them. 

Mr. Day found here two missionaries of the London Society, 
Rev. Messrs. Porter and Gordon, the latter of whom was sta- 
tioned at Cuddapah. These were the only stations of this Society 
among the Teloogoos, and as the missionaries assured Mr. Day 
that no others were likely to be established, he deemed it spec- 
ially important to select a site for his own mission in some 
unoccupied portion of the Teloogoo country. In August, 1836, 
he went with his family to Cicacole, where he commenced his 



232 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

labors as a missionary. He here established a school which 
was at first attended by thirty or forty scholars, who, it was soon 
evident, came to be instructed with the hope of receiving some 
trifling reward ; for when they found that the sum which they 
expected was not paid they were seen no more at the school. 
In a little time however, as the aims of the missionary became 
better understood, the school w r as filled with thirty-six boys 
who attended regularly, and were pledged to remain in it at 
least six months. In December another school was begun, 
composed of boys of the lowest condition in life, who had awak- 
ened the compassion of the missionary on account of their 
extreme ignorance and stupidity. While at Cicacole Mr. Day 
was solicited to go and reside at Arnee, where was then quar- 
tered the regiment containing soldiers who had been baptized 
at Maulmain ; but he had arranged with Mr. Malcom to delay 
fixing upon a place of permanent settlement until they should 
have an opportunity to consult together upon the subject. In 
January, 1837, in company with He v. Mr. Gordon of Vizaga- 
patam, he went on an excursion one hundred and twenty miles 
into the interior, as far as Burhampore, in the course of w T hich 
he visited forty towms and villages and enlarged his acquaint- 
ance with the character and superstitions of the people. Many 
of these places were thought to present inviting fields for mis- 
sionary labor, though in several of them a missionary or even 
a Christian had never been seen before. 

In the following March Mr. Day went to Madras in order to 
meet Rev. Mr. Malcom, who had now returned from his visit to 
Farther India ; and after a full consideration of the respective 
advantages of the several places which had been visited, Madras 
was fixed upon as the seat of the mission. Though it was 
already the residence of several missionaries of different Soci- 
eties, yet none of them were engaged in labor for the Teloogoos, 
who constituted, as was estimated, at least one sixth part of the 
population of the city and the villages in its suburbs. In one 
of these villages, Wonarapetta, where was a large Teloogoo 
population, he took up his residence, and with the aid of Mrs. 



A CHURCH ORGANIZED AT MADRAS. 233 

Day and of Christian Poorooshothuin, a native preacher from 
Burhampore, he established three schools, containing in all 
about seventy scholars. He preached in English to the British 
residents of Madras, and the assistant maintained public wor- 
ship in the native language. He also distributed copies of the 
Scriptures and religious tracts so far as was in his power, among 
the higher and middle classes, a large portion of whom, espec- 
ially of the males, were able to read. 

In March and April of the following year he visited Bellary, 
a small town in the jS'orth, which contained a branch of the 
Maulmain English church, composed of soldiers belonging to 
the regiment stationed there. During his visit he baptized 
twenty-two persons in the presence of an assembly of three 
thousand natives, drawn together to witness the unwonted spec- 
tacle of a Christian baptism. On his return to Madras a 
church of sixteen members — English, Eurasian, Hindoo, and 
Burman — was organized in that city, and the little company 
at Bellary were now constituted a branch of the new church, 
and recognized as a part of the charge of the solitary mission- 
ary. To this church he continued to preach in English, which 
was understood by all its members and by thousands of the na- 
tive population of the city ; and so strong was the desire to learn 
it that schools would not be long attended by pupils of the 
higher classes of the people, unless the English language were 
among the subjects of instruction. 

So numerous, however, are the cares and so various the labors 
which pertain to a mission planted in a heathen land, that a 
single missionary always works at great disadvantage. The 
field lies all unoccupied around him, and in whatever direction 
he turns, his eye rests upon nought but the wide waste of hea- 
thenism. He has none to counsel him, none to share his labors ; 
and if he pursues with appropriate zeal any particular interest 
which has called forth his efforts, he must leave all others 
uncared-for. If he remains in the city, the people of the coun- 
try may not hear the gospel ; if he travels from village to vil- 
lage, the schools he has planted and the advantages he has 
21* 



234 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

gained in the city become scattered and lost. Every page of 
missionary history illustrates the wisdom of our Lord's exam- 
ple in sending forth his disciples, two and two, to preach to dis- 
tant villages the doctrines he had taught them. Mr. Day had 
been in Madras but a few months when he began to experience 
the disadvantages of his solitary condition. The infant mission 
was already spreading its branches in many directions, and re- 
quiring more care and labor than it was possible for one person, 
however active, to bestow. He frequently appealed to the 
Board for help, but the limited resources with which they were 
supplied allowed them to make no addition to the station. A 
press was also needed ; for though the presses of the other mis- 
sions in that city were furnished with Teloogoo type they were 
usually employed in other kinds of printing, and Mr. Day was, 
in consequence, often unsupplied with the tracts and books 
which he required in his daily intercourse with the people. 

In these circumstances, often embarrassed and almost dis- 
heartened, he saw the first four years of his labors pass away. 
Several Eurasians and Tamils, as well as several English, had 
been baptized ; and in a second visit which he made to Arnee, 
nine additional members of the regiment stationed there had 
been added to the church. But notwithstanding these encour- 
aging indications among other races none of the Teloogoos 
had yet embraced Christianity, and it became evident that the 
station at Madras, though possessing many important advan- 
tages, was still not likely to succeed among the people for 
whose benefit it was specially established. In the summer of 
1839 Mr. Day therefore began seriously to think of removing 
to some more favorable situation in another part of the Teloo- 
goo country. 

It chanced that one of the native assistants, a Tamil from 
Tanjore, was at this time preaching at Nellore,* a large town an 
hundred and ten miles north of Madras, in the midst of a numer- 



* It is said there are not less than two millions of Teloogoos in the district 
of Nellore. 



NELLORE. 235 

ous population purely of Teloogoos. To this place Mr. Day 
determined to remove the mission, though without entirely 
abandoning the station at Madras, where, in case he should be 
joined by another missionary, he hoped still to maintain the lit- 
tle church which he had planted. He reached JSellore with his 
family in February, 1840, and having rented of the government a 
suitable lot he immediately erected a large building, a part of 
which was to be used as a mission-house and a part as a zayat. 
He also commenced the daily reading of the Scriptures, and 
preaching on the Sabbath to congregations which averaged twen- 
ty-five in number. A few weeks after his arrival at Nellore, he 
had the pleasure of welcoming to the station Rev. Stephen Van 
Husen and his wife, who had sailed from the United States in 
October, 1839 ; and in the following September he baptized the 
first Christian convert from the Teloogoos. A church was soon 
afterwards constituted, and while Mr. Van Husen was learning 
the language he devoted himself to the distribution of tracts, to 
preaching in English, and also to instructing in Christian doc- 
trines such of the assistants and others as he was able to hold 
communication with. He also journeyed far into the interior 
in company with the assistant, studying the character and su- 
perstitions of the people, attending the heathen festivals and 
distributing thousands of tracts and books to all who would re- 
ceive them. 

In the spring of 1841 Mr. Day made a visit to Madras, the 
first which he had been able to make since his removal to Nel- 
lore. He found the church in a condition far from satisfactory. 
Its members ceased to meet for religious worship, and many of 
them either had become connected with other churches, or, what 
was far more to be regretted, were living in total neglect of all 
Christian culture. With pain rather than with surprise at their 
fallen and scattered condition, he endeavored to rally them 
again ; but so infrequent and few must be the visits which could 
be made to them either by Mr. Yan Husen or himself, that, in 
the present condition of the mission, he felt obliged to abandon 
the hope of retaining them under its care. Several converts 



236 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

were ready to be baptized, but the church was not worthy to 
receive them, and Mr. Day was obliged to leave them to the 
unfriendly influences by which they were surrounded, — rightly 
deciding that as he and his associate had been sent to the Teloo 
goos, it was not proper for them to abandon their appointed 
work, even for so important a labor as that which demanded 
their attention among the English converts of their own denom- 
ination at Madras. The church was accordingly dissolved, 
though another was soon after constituted at Arcot, embracing 
some of the same members together with several Tamil and 
Teloogoo people who were baptized at Arcot, and placed under 
the charge of an intelligent native assistant. 

The only peculiar hinderances which the missionaries encoun- 
tered arose from the system of caste, to which all classes of the 
people in Hindostan are enslaved. In accordance with its pro- 
hibitions the natives refused to receive the missionaries into 
their dwellings lest they should lose caste ; yet on public festi- 
vals and at the corners of the streets they were suffered to preach 
without molestation, and assemblies of fifty or a hundred per- 
sons would often gather to hear them. This absurd system is 
as capricious as it is despotic in its requirements. It permits 
religious instruction to be given in schools by the missionary, 
and Christian catechisms to be taught by the unconverted na- 
tive teacher, but Christian native teachers it does not tolerate. 
It allows children to be sent to the missionaries to be educated, 
but it does not allow the missionaries to visit the families to 
which the children belong. Schools have been established in 
considerable number by the agents of the East India Company, 
in which male children are taught English, and many of the 
common branches of knowledge ; and at Nellore and the neigh- 
boring villages, additional schools — at one time twelve in num- 
ber — were established by the missionaries, strictly for religious 
instruction. These schools were attended with many good 
results. The scholars were required to be present at religious 
exercises both on week days and on Sunday, and were often 
accompanied by their parents. In this manner an interest in 



DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. 237 

the mission and a knowledge of Christian truth were commu- 
nicated to many families, and the impression was spread widely 
abroad that Christianity is vastly superior to Buddhism or 
Brahminism, and that it will at length universally prevail. 

In consequence of the views entertained by the Baptist de- 
nomination respecting the mode and the subjects of Christian 
baptism, our missionaries have seldom been inclined to adopt 
the versions of the sacred Scriptures which have been made by 
those who preceded them in the East. In most of these ver- 
sions, the words relating to this ordinance are either transferred 
from the original Greek, or are translated in a manner that 
conflicts with the settled faith and practice of our churches. 
The British and Foreign Bible Society early directed that all 
translations which might be made under its auspices should be 
strictly in accordance with "the authorized English version/' — 
thus requiring the transfer and forbidding the translation of the 
words relating to baptism. In March, 1841, while Mr. Day 
was at Madras, the Bible Society of that city adopted the same 
resolution. Against the extension of these words and their 
perpetuation in all languages, the Baptists, however, both in 
England and America, had very generally protested, and both 
the instructions of the Board and the resolutions of the Conven- 
tion had directed the missionaries to translate the words accord- 
ing to their conscientious convictions of truth. In these cir- 
cumstances, it was plain that any modification of the common 
version which Messrs. Day and Van Husen might make, could 
not be published by the Bible Society of Madras, on whose copies 
they had hitherto been accustomed to rely. They accordingly 
addressed a statement of the facts to the Board, and requested 
that another missionary might be sent them, together with a 
press which they had long needed, that they might have within 
their own control the means of multiplying copies of the word 
of God faithfully translated, in accordance with the principles 
of their own faith and that of their brethren in America. How- 
ever much it is to be regretted that the Scriptures are circu- 
lated in heathen lands in versions essentially different from 



288 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

each other, yet in the present condition of the Christian world 
this result seems unavoidable, and indeed had already taken 
place from other causes, before it was brought about by the 
views or the instructions of Baptist missionaries. The Board, 
however, were at this time too much straitened in their means 
to comply with the request, even had any person suitable for 
the post offered his services for their acceptance ; and though 
they fully approved the principle maintained by the missionaries, 
they were obliged still to leave them without the aid which they 
required in carrying it into practice. 

Meanwhile the missionaries had divided the station and estab- 
lished themselves in different parts of the city, for greater con- 
venience in superintending the several schools, and also for 
maintaining intercourse with a greater variety of the population. 
In August, 1843, three additional converts were baptized and 
added to the church, — one of them a Teloogoo and a member 
of the boarding school, another a Tamil who spoke Teloogoo, 
a young man of superior education, and the third a Eurasian 
woman who resided in Mr. Day's family. Schools of different 
grades were also established, not only in the city, but in several 
of the adjacent villages, at the request of the inhabitants them- 
selves ; and it was plain* that the population were beginning to 
feel the influence of the gospel and to doubt the divinity of 
their idols. The mission was thus increasing both in interest 
and efficiency when the health of its members began to fail, 
and many of its most useful labors were in consequence re- 
mitted. 

The climate of Nellore, though exceedingly warm, is reputed 
to be not prejudicial to the health of Europeans ; yet the mis- 
sionaries were unable long to endure it. Mrs. Day, whose 
health first began to suffer, regained her. accustomed strength 
after a brief absence from the station. Mr. Van Husen was 
obliged to remit his labors in 1843, and, after repeated though 
unsuccessful trials of every remedy which was prescribed, was 
obliged to take passage for Calcutta, and at length to return to 
the United States. He arrived with Mrs. Van Husen in Oc- 



DEPARTURE OF THE MISSIONARIES FROM NELLORE. 239 

tober, 1 845, the victim of a distressing malady from which he 
has not yet recovered. 

The departure of these missionaries from Nellore was a se- 
rious blow to all the interests of the mission. Two schools 
which had been principally under their charge were immediately 
suspended, and a third was soon after broken up by the appear- 
ance of the cholera. The remaining duties of the station were 
performed by Mr. and Mrs. Day, with the aid of the assistants ; 
but their health was no longer adequate to the task, and was 
now becoming feebler every month. In October, 1845, Mr. 
Day, who had for some time been unable to labor with his 
accustomed assiduity, went to Madras in order to administer 
baptism to several persons attached to one of the regiments 
there ; but on reaching that city he was wholly unable to per- 
form the service. He was received into the families of several 
Christian friends, and by the physicians whom he consulted was 
advised to lose no time in commencing a protracted voyage for 
the recovery of his health. His family, who were still at Nel- 
lore, were immediately sent for, and, with the generous aid of 
friends who compassionated their condition, were made ready 
for their unexpected departure for America. Mr. and Mrs. 
Day had then neither the time nor the*means requisite for pre- 
paring for a long and perilous passage across the oceans that 
separated them from their native land ; but every want was 
supplied and every comfort provided by the attentions of their 
friends at Madras. Christian missionaries and English officers 
vied with each other in aiding the afflicted mission family, 
as they reluctantly left the country to which they had come on 
their errand of philanthropy.* They embarked at Madras in 
December, 1845, and coming by way of England, arrived in 
this country in the following June. 

Leaving the station at Nellore thus abruptly and unexpected- 

* Mr. Day acknowledges these acts of hospitality and generosity which he 
and his family experienced, both at Nellore and at Madras, with special grati- 
tude, in a communication addressed to the Executive Committee, written on 
his passage home and printed in the Magazine for September, 1846. 



240 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

ly, it was impossible for Mr. Day to arrange very perfectly for 
its future continuance and guidance. The property of the mis- 
sion then consisted of a dwelling house, part of which was used 
as a zayat, and a small estate which had been occupied by the 
missionary and his family, together with a school house which 
had been purchased for the accommodation of Mr. Van Husen's 
part of the station, — the whole valued at about twenty-three 
hundred dollars. These were all left in charge of a Eurasian 
preacher, who was placed at the head of the mission, and was 
to be assisted by two native Christians, having also under their 
care five schools,* each averaging twenty-five scholars. In ad- 
dition there was a church of six or seven members, Tamils and 
Teloogoos, in whose piety the missionary had the highest confi- 
dence, and whose Christian characters have since continued 
without reproach amidst many temptations and evil influences. 
Thus deprived of its founder and principal conductor, the mis- 
sion was regarded by its friends with peculiar solicitude. The 
Executive Committee had long felt their inability to sustain it 
with the energy which its exigencies obviously demanded ; and 
now that its only remaining occupant had been obliged to leave 
it, they seriously entertained the thought of wholly abandoning 
the country of the Teloogoos and confining their missions to the 
regions of Farther India, where their stations seemed fortunately 
placed in convenient proximity to each other. So earnest, how- 
ever, were the views both of Mr. Day, and of Mr. Sutton who 
wrote from Orissa, respecting the advantages offered by the 
country as a field for Christian missions, and so interesting and 
attractive seemed the character of the people, that the com- 
mittee determined for the present at least not to advise a dis- 
solution of the mission, but to wait for future indications of 
Providence to decide the policy which they should pursue. 

Thus continued the station at Nellore in the hands of native 
assistants, who were able to do little more than maintain the 



* Three Teloogoo, one Tamil and one English. The latter has since been 
discontinued. 



MISSIONARY LABOR RESUMED. 241 

schools which had been planted by the missionaries, until the 
meeting of the Union at Troy, in May, 1848. Meanwhile the 
question of continuing the mission had assumed a new aspect, 
from the fact that Mr. Day had recovered his health and was 
now ready to return to his station ; and also that Rev. Lyman 
Jewett, who had recently offered his services as a mission- 
ary, was desirous of accompanying him to the Teloogoos. In 
these circumstances, the Executive Committee submitted the 
question to the Board in an elaborate paper prepared by the 
Foreign Corresponding Secretary, Rev. Mr. Peck, and con- 
taining a full view of all the considerations pertaining to it. 
After being fully discussed by the managers, it was by them re- 
ferred to the meeting of the Union for final decision ; and that 
body, after still further deliberation, voted to instruct the com- 
mittee to reinforce the mission. In this manner has it been 
saved from the extinction that threatened it, and raised to a ren- 
ovated, and it is hoped, a progressive life. The action which 
was taken by the Union upon the question of its continuance, is 
to be regarded as a renewed pledge to give it the support and 
carry it forward with the energy which shall insure its perma- 
nence and success. 

The Executive Committee immediately began to carry into 
effect the instructions which they had received, by making 
arrangements to furnish with missionaries the long abandoned 
station at Nellore. On the 10th of October, 1848, Mr. Day,* 
in company with Mr. and Mrs. Jewett, who had previously been 
designated to the mission, sailed from Boston for Calcutta, and 
are now probably at the place of their destination. 

Thus, under new auspices, does the humble mission to the 
Teloogoos again invite the sympathy and the aid of those by 
whose direction it has been revived, and on whom it must con- 
stantly depend for its pecuniary support. Already are its pros- 

* Mrs. Day remained with, her children in this country. Her husband's 
present appointment is for the term of five years, and should the mission pros- 
per as is hoped, Mrs. Day will return to Nellore at an early period. 

22 



242 MISSION AMONG THE TELOOGOOS. 

pects brightening by reason of the progress of education, and of 
the light which is reflected from the flourishing missions that 
are established by other societies among the neighboring races 
of India. Among many of these races there is a general prep- 
aration to receive the gospel, and an impression widely prevailing 
that Christianity is destined at length to supplant every other 
religion. This impression is undoubtedly owing in a great de- 
gree to the wide extension of British power in the East, — a 
power so formidable and resistless to the people of Hindostan, 
that they may well deem it likely to establish the language, the 
laws, and the religion of England over the earth. Beneath its 
broad protection the missionary among the Teloogoos dwells in 
security, and pursues his sacred work unharmed, with no pecu- 
liar obstacles to oppose him save those which arise from the 
superstitions and the social habits of the people. Against these 
he will continue to struggle on in the might which always at- 
tends a holy cause, and with full confidence that his efforts will 
at length be crowned with success by that gracious Spirit who 
ever watches over the progress of truth among men. 



MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 



CHAPTEK XIX. 

General Character of the Mission. — Lott Carey and Collin Teage. — Rev. 
Calvin Holton. — Character and Death of Mr. Carey. — Rev. Benjamin 
Skinner. — Failure of the Mission in consequence of the Death of Mission- 
aries. — Arrival of Messrs. Crocker and Mylne. — Station at Edina among 
the Bassas. — Madebli. — Character of the People. — Arrival of Rev. Ivory 
Clarke. — Departure of Mr. Mylne. — Progress of the Mission. — Messrs. 
Fielding and Constantine. — Failure of their Undertaking. — Departure of 
Mr. Crocker. — Progress of the Mission in his Absence. — His Return and 
Death. — Station at Bexley. — The Labors of Mr. Clarke : Translations: 
Churches: Schools: his Death. — Close of the Mission. — Attempted Mis- 
sion in Hayti. 

No one of the missions planted by the Managers of the Gen- 
eral Convention has had so serious obstacles to encounter, or has 
been so often paralysed by their influence, as that on the west- 
ern coast of Africa. Its history conducts us to a portion of the 
earth pervaded by a pestilential climate and perpetually ravaged 
by the cupidity of civilized man, — to a race degraded by the 
barbarism and wrongs of ages, and, by common consent, long 
doomed to slavery and oppression among almost every people of 
Christendom. No relics of a departed civilization, no scenes of 
storied events, attract attention to this gloomy region. No hoary 
superstitions blending with the rude traditions of an elder age 
lend a philosophic interest to the people who inhabit it. It 
presents only a blank and dreary waste of barbarism, occupied 
by the lowest and most abject forms of humanity. Yet Chris- 
tian Philanthropy, to her honor be it spoken, has not passed by 
even this desolate land in utter neglect. She has braved the 
pestilence that perpetually haunts its coasts, and has encoun- 



244 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

i 

tered the ferocity of its degraded and brutalized inhabitants; 
and, finding arguments for her support in the very degradation 
of their condition and in the wrongs they have suffered, she has 
endeavored to communicate to them the truths of the gospel 
and secure for them the blessings of Christian civilization. It 
is true that these endeavors have been attended with the most 
imperfect success ; and the scenes in which they were put forth 
are now marked by the graves of many of the heroic men who 
made them. Yet they well illustrate the spirit of that compre- 
hensive philanthropy which the religion of Christ alone is able 
to inspire. 

The mission of the American Baptists has been principally 
confined to that portion of the western coast of Africa known 
as Liberia, and has been planted only among the Bassa tribe 
of its inhabitants, — a numerous people occupying a strip of 
the coast ninety miles in length, lying between Junk river and 
the river Sesters, and extending back nearly seventy miles in 
the interior. They are supposed to be about one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand in number. 

The earliest missionaries sent by the Board were Lott Carey 
and Collin Teage, two colored men, who were ordained at Rich- 
mond, Va., in January, 1821, and soon afterwards sailed for 
Africa as emigrants of the American Colonization Society. 
The Society had not at this period established a colony upon the 
coast, and Messrs. Carey and Teage went to Freetown, in the 
English colony of Sierra Leone. Their residence here how- 
ever was brief, in consequence of the unfriendliness of the 
climate, and in February, 1822, they removed to Monrovia, a 
settlement which had been planted by colonists from America. 
Here they commenced their labors as missionaries and founded 
a church. Six persons were baptized during the year 1823, 
and in the year following nine more were added to their num- 
ber, and a commodious place of worship was erected for their 
use. Of this church Lott Carey became the pastor, his asso- 
ciate in the mean time having returned to Sierra Leone. In 
the performance of his duties as a missionary Mr. Carey evinced 



LOTT CAREY. 247 

remarkable energy and faithfulness. He was born a slave in 
Virginia, but many years before leaving Richmond he had pur- 
chased his freedom and that of his two children, and had ac- 
quired the rudiments of a superior education, and proved himself 
worthy of the highest trusts in the business with which he was 
charged. On the pestilential shores of Africa he soon found 
occasion for all the knowledge he had acquired, both among his 
fellow emigrants and the rude barbarians from the interior with 
whom they became associated. By his acquaintance with medi- 
cine, he healed their maladies ; by his sagacity in civil affairs, 
he settled their disputes and aided in the organization of their 
infant society ; and by his earnestness and power as a preacher, 
he commended the gospel to their hearts and consciences with 
unusual success. 

Early in 1825 Rev. Calvin Holton was accepted as a mis- 
sionary by the Board, and sailed for the American colonies in 
Liberia. Almost immediately after his arrival, however, Mr. 
Holton was seized with the fever which in that climate usually 
attacks Europeans who come from other latitudes, and died in 
July of the same year. 

The mission continued to be sustained by Mr. Carey, with 
the aid of two or three pious assistants from among the emi- 
grants. The resources by which it was kept alive were sup- 
plied almost entirely by his own efforts, as the funds which were 
furnished by the Board were of necessity at this time exceed- 
ingly limited. The labors of the mission were bestowed upon 
the emigrant colonists, and also, as far as possible, upon the na- 
tives of the country who had either been rescued from slave- 
ships and settled upon the coast, or had voluntarily come in 
from the neighboring wilderness to join the colonies of their 
more civilized brethren. Mr. Carey in this manner preached 
and maintained schools at Monrovia and also at Cape Grand 
Mount, — at the latter place among a people known as the 
Veys, one of the most powerful and intelligent of the tribes on 
the coast. At these and other settlements he was the life and 
soul of nearly all the religious efforts and operations that were 



248 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

Carried on. He preached several times every week, superin- 
tended schools both for religious and for secular instruction, — 
in some of which he taught himself, — travelled from one settle- 
ment to another, and watched with constant vigilance and un- 
remitting care over all the spiritual and the social interests of 
the colonists. 

In September, 1826, he was unanimously elected vice-agent 
of the colony, and on the return of Mr. Ashmun to the United 
States in 1828, he was appointed to discharge the duties of 
governor in the interim — a task which he performed during the 
brief remnant of his life with wisdom, and with credit to himself. 
His death took place in November, 1828, in a manner that was 
fearfully sudden and extraordinary. The natives of the coun- 
try had committed depredations upon the property of the colony, 
and were threatening general hostilities. Mr. Carey, in his 
capacity as acting governor, immediately called out the military 
forces of the colony, and commenced vigorous measures for re- 
pelling the assault and protecting the settlements. He was at 
the magazine, engaged in superintending the making of car- 
tridges, when, by the oversetting of a lamp, a large mass of 
powder became ignited, and produced an explosion which re- 
sulted in the death of Mr. Carey and seven others who were 
engaged with him. In this sudden and awful manner perished 
an extraordinary man, — one who in a higher sphere might 
have developed many of the noblest energies of character, and 
who, even in the humble capacity of a missionary among his 
own benighted brethren, deserves a prominent place in the list 
of those who have shed lustre upon the African race. 

At the period of Mr. Carey's death, the church of which he 
was pastor contained a hundred members, and was in a highly 
flourishing condition. It was committed to the charge of Collin 
Teage, who now returned from Sierra Leone, and of Mr. War- 
ing, one of its members, who had lately been ordained a minister. 
The influences which had commenced with the indefatigable 
founder of the mission continued to be felt long after he had 
ceased to live. The church at Monrovia was increased to two 



DEATH OF MISSIONARIES. 249 

hundred members, and the power of the gospel was manifested 
in other settlements of the Colonization Society, and even among 
the rude natives of the coast, of whom nearly a hundred were 
converted to Christianity and united w T ith the several churches 
in the colony. 

In 1830 Rev. Benjamin Skinner was appointed a missionary 
to Africa. He was ordained at Richmond, Ya. on the 4th of 
October, and before the close of the month sailed with his 
family for Monrovia, where they arrived in the following De- 
cember. Soon after their arrival they were all seized with 
the fever of the coast, and Mrs. Skinner and her two children 
fell victims to the disease. Mr. Skinner partially recovered 
from the fever, but his constitution w r as shattered by its ravages 
and by the heavy bereavements w r ith which he was afflicted. 
He remained in the country till July, 1831, but without attempt- 
ing any missionary labor, when he embarked for the United 
States in hope of being restored by the voyage. The hope, 
however, proved illusive, and he died at sea on the twentieth day 
of the passage. 

Thus fatally terminated two attempts of the Board to settle 
white men as missionaries on the coast of Africa. Those who 
were sent had fallen victims to the climate almost as soon as 
they came within its pestilential influence. The enterprise 
seemed entirely hopeless, and the Board now directed their at- 
tention to the finding of suitable men of color who might be 
employed to carry forward the mission. Their efforts, however, 
proved unsuccessful, and five years elapsed before any additional 
missionaries were sent to Africa. The mission, however, during 
this interval was not abandoned, but w r as even somewhat ex- 
tended by means of the preachers and teachers who were ap- 
pointed from among the pious emigrants. The most conspicuous 
of these, in addition to those already mentioned, w r ere Rev. A. 
W. Anderson, Rev. John Lewis, and Rev. Hilary Teage, son 
of Collin Teage. In the summer of 1834 Dr. Ezekiel Skinner, 
father of the missionary, a practising physician and a minister 
of the gospel from the State of Connecticut, went to reside in 



250 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

Liberia. He was appointed by no society, but was prompted 
by motives of philanthropy and by special interest in the neg- 
lected race in whose service his son had already offered up his 
life. This gentleman subsequently was raised to the office of 
governor, and alike in his public and his private relations he 
exerted a favorable influence upon the mission and upon all the 
interests of the colony. By agencies like these the church at 
Monrovia, whose branches had now extended through several 
villages, was supplied with the regular ministry of the gospel, 
and many of the schools which had been established were also 
continued in operation. 

Early in 1835 Eev. W. G. Crocker and Rev. W. Mylne offer- 
ed themselves to the managers, and were appointed missionaries 
to Africa. So painful had been the experience of the Board in 
their attempts to establish this mission, that its officers could not 
solicit persons to go to so unhealthy a station ; yet if missionaries 
offered their services with a full knowledge of the perils they 
must encounter, the Board could not of course decline to send 
them. These gentlemen were well educated, and in every way 
qualified for the work of preaching the gospel to the heathen, 
and on the 11th of July they sailed from Philadelphia for Mon- 
rovia, where they arrived after a prosperous passage of thirty- 
two days. By the instructions which they received they were 
appointed to labor specially among the native tribes of the coun- 
try, — it being deemed that these ought to be made the more 
immediate subjects of Christian effort, rather than the emigrant 
settlements of colonization societies that lined the coast. Im- 
mediately on their arrival they repaired to Millsburg, one of the 
towns of the Monrovia settlement, in order to go through with 
the perilous process of acclimation. Here they were soon pros- 
trated by the prevalent fever of the coast, and, though in the 
midst of missionary friends who rendered every aid in their 
power, Mrs. Mylne, the only lady of their company, fell a victim 
to the disease within a month after their arrival. Mr. Crocker 
and Mr. Mylne, however, survived the acclimation, and, though 



MISSIONAKY LABOR AMONG THE BASSAS. 251 

in enfeebled health, were soon able to enter upon their labors 
as missionaries. 

At the instance of Dr. Skinner, and with the approbation of 
the Board, they determined to establish their mission among 
the Bassas, a tribe whose language was widely spoken in the 
interior, and whose principal trading place was at Bassa Cove, 
at the mouth of the Mechlin river, at this time a joint settle- 
ment of the Colonization Societies of Pennsylvania and New 
York. These people were also numerous at Edina, a small 
town on the bank of the river opposite to Bassa Cove. Af- 
ter examining several different localities, the missionaries fixed 
upon Edina as the place of their future labors, and in Decem- 
ber, 1835, they removed to Bassa Cove, in order to superin- 
tend the preparation of buildings, and if possible immediately 
to commence their labors on the opposite bank of the river. 

On their arrival in the country the first aim of the mission- 
aries had been to acquire the language, reduce it to an al- 
phabet, and prepare it for writing. In doing this they were 
assisted by a young colonist whom they employed, and who was 
able to speak both Bassa and English. In February, 1836, 
Messrs. Crocker and Mylne made an excursion up the Mechlin 
river, a distance of twenty miles, to Madebli, the village of 
Sante Will, a chief of whom they had often heard, and whose 
children they desired to have at the school they were about to 
open at Edina. The chief told them that he was only a gov- 
ernor under king Bob Gray, who was then but two miles off 
attending the funeral of a relative. The missionaries imme- 
diately repaired to the king, who, on hearing their object for- 
mally stated, warmly commended it, and proposed to his head 
men that they should send their children to be instructed at the 
school. He afterwards, however, decided to wait till he could 
consult other chiefs who were away, that they might all act to- 
gether; but he promised to send a dozen or twenty men to 
build a school house at Edina, so soon as his people should com- 
plete the work of the season upon their farms. It was after- 
wards discovered that this king was only tributary to a mon- 



252 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

arch of greater pretensions, known as king Koba, who, when the 
proposal of Mr. Crocker was made known to him, replied, " I 
am afraid of that white man ; he comes and sits down softly in 
my country; I don't know what he will do." His prejudices, 
however, were soon overcome, — for he invited the missionaries 
to visit him, and interpreted their sermons to his people, and 
when the school was opened at Edina he sent his son to join it, 
as did also Sante Will and king Bob Gray. 

Though the mission was designed especially for the native 
tribes, yet, -while the missionaries were acquiring the language, 
and becoming acquainted with the people of the country, they 
were engaged in constant labors among the colonists. They 
preached at Bassa Cove and also at Edina, and opened schools 
at both these places. Mr. Crocker also obtained funds from 
other tow r ns of the colony to enable the church at Bassa Cove 
to erect a suitable house of worship, which w r as completed in 
July, 1836. Here Mr. Mylne continued to preach till the 
church was supplied with a pastor early in the following year, 
and during this period he baptized sixteen persons. 

Mr. Crocker devoted himself to studying the structure of the 
Bassa language, and by the close of the first year of his resi- 
dence in the country, he had so far mastered it that he prepared 
a spelling book and a small vocabulary of words and phrases, 
to which he added a brief statement of some of the leading 
facts of divine revelation. In December, 1836, he went to 
Monrovia, and printed an edition of two hundred copies for im- 
mediate use in the schools. Its effect upon the progress of the 
native scholars soon began to be obvious. Several of the more 
intelligent among them were speedily able both to read and to 
write the language of their tribe. Much delay had been occa- 
sioned in the erection of the mission buildings at Edina, by the 
difficulty in procuring workmen who would labor with even 
tolerable regularity and fidelity. A carpenter was at length 
obtained from Monrovia, and the houses were completed and oc- 
cupied by the missionaries and their schools in June, 1837. 

During all this period they had been subject to frequent attacks 



GROWING INTEREST OP BASSA CHIEFS. 253 

of disease, which they warded off only by changing the place of 
their residence, — ■ going now to other settlements upon the coast 
and now to the interior, in order to escape the malarious influ- 
ence that constantly hung around them. They also frequently 
went to Madebli, the village of Sante Will, where the chief soon 
manifested so deep an interest in their labors that they deter- 
mined to make it an out-station of the mission. A small house 
was accordingly erected there, to which Mr. Crocker removed in 
October, 1837, and immediately commenced the translation of the 
New Testament. Several of the chiefs from the interior also visit- 
ed the schools at Edina, and expressed warm approbation at their 
condition ; Sante Will even claimed the original patronage of the 
w T hole plan, and boasted that he was the first to encourage it by 
intrusting his sons to the care of the missionaries. The num- 
ber of native children now under their charge was as large as 
they were able to provide for, and many of them, as has already 
been mentioned, were sons of the principal chiefs of the tribe. 
Among them, the most distinguished both for the talents and 
the moral spirit which he evinced, was Kong, the son of king 
Koba, the head chief of the Bassas. He early made remarka- 
ble progress in the studies of the school, and at length, with 
some of his less distinguished associates, gave decided evidence 
of Christian character. 

Messrs. Crocker and Mylne had survived what were deem- 
ed the greatest perils incident to their condition upon this un- 
healthy coast, and had planted their stations under auspices far 
more favorable than any which had hitherto attended the mis- 
sion. As was natural new hopes began to dawn in their minds^ 
and new interests were awakened in their labors among their 
brethren at home. Yet to one who inspects the journals in 
which they recorded their daily experience, the prospect will 
appear to have been far from attractive and encouraging. It 
was only less gloomy and repulsive than it had hitherto been. 
They were indeed near the emigrant settlements of the societies 
for colonizing Africa with her own scattered children, yet the 
example of many of the colonists was any thing but favorable 
23 



254 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

to the cause of Christian civilization. They were among a peo- 
ple many of whom, it is true, evinced a readiness to be taught 
the gospel, but they belonged to the most abject and degraded 
portion of the human race, — so debased by barbarian passions, 
so stupefied by the superstitions of their brutalizing grigri,* that 
the impressions made upon their minds were usually as transi- 
tory as figures drawn upon the shifting sands of their own des- 
erts. And to add to the melancholy picture, almost side by side 
with the stations of the missionaries arose the frowning front of 
the slave factory ; and in the same circles in which they preach- 
ed the gospel of peace and love, was carried on that accursed 
traffic which more than every other sin has blackened the annals 
of human guilt and shame. They however still labored on, 
though often disabled by sickness, and hindered by obstacles 
such as missionaries seldom encounter; and they even began to 
devise plans, and to appeal to their brethren in America, for the 
extension of the mission to other tribes that dwell upon the coast 
or that roam the interior. 

In January, 1838, Rev. Ivory Clarke and his wife arrived at 
Edina. Like their predecessors they were immediately attacked 
by fever but in a form unusually mild, and they were soon able 
to commence the study of the language and to perform such 
duties in the mission as their inexperience would admit. They 
resided either at Edina or at one of the neighboring villages, 
and with better health and greater aids than had been possessed 
by those who preceded them, they made rapid progress in ac- 
quiring the language and preparing for their missionary labors. 
Their arrival gave new animation to the hopes of their asso- 
ciates and brightened the prospects of the mission. But it was 
only for a brief season, — for the health of Mr. Mylne, which had 
been shattered by repeated fevers, soon gave indications of hope- 
less failure. In May, 1838, he returned to the United States, 
and not long after, in consequence of his ruined health, withdrew 

* Grigri is a species of witchcraft, or sorcery, which constitutes almost the 
only religion of the tribes on the coast. 



AFFLICTION AND BEREAVEMENT. 255 

from the service of the Board. The care of the station at Edina 
now devolved upon Mr. Clarke, — aided by two of the colonists, 
Messrs. Davis and Day, — the former the pastor of the emigrant 
church, and the latter a teacher and preacher in the employ of 
the mission. Mr. Crocker in the mean time resided at Madebli, 
or Sante Will's town, where he was engaged in preaching, teach- 
ing in the schools, and translating the Scriptures, — in the latter 
of which he was assisted by his pupil, Kong Koba, the son of 
the head chief who has already been mentioned, a youth whose 
talents and character fully justified the hopes which the mis- 
sionaries entertained concerning him. 

In September, 1839, the mission was still further strengthened 
by the arrival of Miss Rizpah Warren, who had been accepted 
by the Board as a missionary teacher, and had sailed for Edina 
in the preceding July. Early in the following summer she was 
married to Rev. W. G. Crocker, and went with him to reside at 
the village of Sante Will. But scarcely had they reached their 
secluded home ere disease and death began their frightful work, 
and blighted the hopes which the missionaries had fondly cher- 
ished. Mr. Crocker was first attacked, and after being brought 
to the very verge of the grave, at length began to mend ; but 
ere he had regained his strength he saw his wife wholly pros- 
trated by the fierce fever of the climate. Her sickness was fear- 
fully brief; she died eight days after the attack, on the 28th of 
August, 1840. Soon after these sad events Mr. Crocker, still 
enfeebled by disease and depressed by sorrow, went to Cape 
Palmas in order to recruit his health, and to procure the print- 
ing of the Gospels of Matthew and John, and a book of hymns 
which he had prepared, and also another edition of the Bassa 
Spelling Book wliich was compiled by Mr. Clarke. He returned 
to his station at Madebli on the 13th of October, with his health 
improved and his spirits invigorated by the kind sympathies of 
the Christian friends whom he met at the settlements, and again 
commenced the labors of the mission in circumstances that 
awakened in his mind the conflicting emotions of grief and of 
hope. 



256 ' MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

The mission in Africa, notwithstanding the vicissitudes 
through which it had passed, was at this time regarded with 
increasing interest both by its members and their friends in this 
country. The memory of the wrongs which the African race 
had so long endured in every land combined with the urgent 
appeals of the missionaries in awakening among the churches 
of America a strong feeling of Christian obligation to send 
them, if possible, the blessings of the gospel. Early in 1840, 
Messrs. Alfred A. Constantine and Joseph Fielding offered 
themselves to the Board as missionaries to the western coast, 
or the interior of Africa. It was at a period when the impres- 
sion prevailed that the climate of the interior might be found 
less deadly to Europeans, than that of the coast had proved 
itself to be. The British government also, with the coopera- 
tion of some philanthropic associations in England, were about 
sending an expedition up the Niger for the purpose of explor- 
ing the regions bordering upon its banks, and introducing to the 
tribes of the interior the arts and the commerce of Europe, to 
take the place of their inhuman traffic in slaves. High hopes 
were entertained by the friends of missions both in England 
and America, that this expedition might open the way for the 
introduction of Christianity to some of the unknown races that 
people this portion of the continent. In accordance with these 
views, the newly-appointed missionaries were designated by the 
managers to the country lying upon the Niger. Having re- 
ceived full instructions from the Board, they sailed from Phila- 
delphia with their wives, in September, 1840, and arrived at 
Monrovia in November and at Edina on the 3d of December. 
Though their destination was to the banks of the Niger, yet it 
was deemed most prudent to wait at Edina until they had 
passed through the inevitable trials incident to the period of 
acclimation. They might also thus learn the results of the 
English expedition, which was now just preparing to ascend the 
river. Little did they then anticipate the melancholy issues of 
that expedition, or the untimely close which was appointed to 
their own career as missionaries. 



FAILURE OF THE NIGER EXPEDITION. 257 

They were seized by the African fever, with its accustomed 
violence, and within six weeks of their arrival both Mr. and 
Mrs. Fielding fell victims to its power — the latter on the 3d, 
and the former on the 16th of January. Mr. and Mrs. Con- 
stantine, though they survived the fever, w r ere unable either to 
proceed to the place of their destination or to engage in the 
labors of the mission. They remained at Edina, making occa- 
sional excursions to different points of the coast or to the inte- 
rior, in the hope of regaining their health, as well as for the 
purpose of observing the condition of the country and the char- 
acter of its inhabitants. Late in the summer of 1841 the Enor- 
lish expedition, comprising three small steamers, proceeded up 
the Niger. Though it was supposed that every possible pre- 
caution had been taken for the health of the Europeans engaged 
in the service, yet the passage up the river proved fearfully de- 
structive. Two of the three steamers were despatched in suc- 
cession to bear back those who were disabled by disease ; and 
when, at the end of eight weeks, the remnant of the expedition 
returned to the coast, it had lost upwards of one eighth of the 
Europeans who were attached to it. It was believed that a 
salutary impression was made by the expedition upon the tribes 
of the interior, but the hopes which were entertained of finding 
there a more salubrious climate were utterly disappointed, and 
the design of establishing a mission among them was entirely 
abandoned. Mr. Constantine, still unable to labor continuously 
in the climate of the coast, returned with his wife to America 
in June, 1842, and soon after, at his own request, was released 
from his engagements w T ith the Board. 

In July, of the year preceding, Mr. Crocker, whose health 
had long been declining, had been obliged to return to the Uni- 
ted States. He left the mission at a period when, to his own 
mind at least, it was possessed of unusual interest and attended 
with many encouragements. He had witnessed great changes 
— all of them for the better — during the six years in which he 
had resided on the coast. Several of his companions had fallen, 
but the truth which he had come to proclaim had made percep- 
22* 



258 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

tible progress. The prejudices of the people among whom he 
had lived had been overcome, and their suspicions and jeal- 
ousies had died away. Children were no longer detained from 
the schools, the preaching of the gospel was listened to with 
attention, and its power had been witnessed in the conversion 
of several of the natives and a large number of the emigrants. 
The churches connected with the mission were both multiplied 
and enlarged, and the interest felt among their members in 
spreading the gospel through the surrounding region had greatly 
increased. A new station was also established, under the charge 
of Mr. Day, at Bexley, a small town on the river, six miles 
from Edina. A printing press had been received by the mis- 
sion, and Messrs. Crocker and Clarke were only waiting to 
engage a printer, in order to put to press several books of the 
New Testament, and other volumes which they had prepared 
in the Bassa language. From all these interests and occupa- 
tions, which bound him strongly to the mission, Mr. Crocker was 
obliged to hasten away, in order to save the feeble remnant of 
his constitution, which had so long been wasting beneath the 
bad influences of that unfriendly climate. 

In consequence of the absence of Mr. Crocker, after the re- 
turn of Mr. and Mrs. Constantine, the care of the mission de- 
volved entirely upon Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, who resided at Edi- 
na, and had under their direction three or four assistants, em- 
ployed either as teachers or preachers. The press was set in 
operation in September, 1842, under the charge of a printer 
obtained from the colony, and several books, designed to aid in 
the acquisition of the language, as well as to impart religious 
knowledge, were immediately issued. Two schools were sus- 
tained at Edina and one at Bexley, containing together about 
ninety scholars, of whom fifty-five were natives. Schools were 
also held at both stations upon the Sabbath, and during certain 
seasons on several evenings of the week, for the instruction of 
adult emigrants in the doctrines of the Bible and in the princi- 
ples of morals. The character of the population was obviously 
improving, and the churches at the two stations were gradually 



DEATH OF MR. CROCKER. 259 

increasing in numbers and advancing in the knowledge of the 
gospel. Mr. Clarke finding himself too remote from the great 
body of the Bassa people, recommended to the Board that the 
mission be removed to Tradetown ; but in its then reduced state 
the removal could not be easily effected, and the project was 
abandoned. An out-station was, however, established at Dua- 
wi's town, a large village in the interior, thirty or forty miles 
from Edina. The chief invited Mr. Clarke to send a teacher 
for his people, and promised to build a school-house and to 
support both teacher and pupils. The station was commenced 
by a young native who had for several years been under the 
instruction of the missionaries. 

Mr. Crocker, after his return to the United States, soon found 
himself so reduced by disease that he abandoned all hope of 
ever rejoining the mission, or engaging again in the labors to 
which he had dedicated his life. He at length, however, re- 
gained a portion of his strength and commenced a journey to 
the south. After a residence of several months in a genial cli- 
mate, during which his health seemed to be fully restored, he 
presented himself to the Board as ready to return to his station 
on the perilous coast which two years before he had so reluc- 
tantly abandoned. The Board sharing his own confidence in 
the restoration of his health, gladly accepted his services, and 
having made the necessary arrangements, he sailed from Boston, 
January 1, 1844. He had a few days before been united in 
marriage with Miss Mary B. Chadbourne, of New bury port, by 
whom he was now accompanied on ftie voyage. He arrived on 
the coast on the 24th of February, with health seemingly unim- 
paired; yet a treacherous malady lurked in his constitution, 
and on the second day after his arrival, while engaged in the 
services of the Sabbath at Monrovia, he was seized with a vio- 
lent hemorrhage of the stomach, of which he died after an 
illness of two days. Thus fell in the midst of high raised hopes, 
and at an unexpected moment, a missionary of no common zeal 
and devotion to the cause. The joy which the tidings of his 
intended return had awakened on that desolate shore, among 



260 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

the natives whom he had formerly instructed, was suddenly 
turned into mourning, and a cloud again rested upon the mission 
at the death of one of its earliest founders and most indefati- 
gable laborers.* 

Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, who were on their way to Monrovia to 
meet the newly-arrived missionaries, reached the settlement 
only to look upon the grave of him from whom they had hoped 
so much, and to escort back to their station the widowed partner 
of his hopes and his sympathies for the neglected sons of Africa. 
Mrs. Crocker, on arriving at Edina, immediately set about pre- 
paring for her work as a missionary, and was soon able to engage 
in the labors and duties which the enfeebled condition of the 
mission pressed upon her attention. 

In January, 1845, the principal station of the mission was re- 
moved from Edina to Bexley, in order to secure a locality more 
favorable to health, and nearer the settlements of the Bassa 
people. A subordinate station however was still maintained 
at Edina, and additional out-stations were planted at Zuzo and 
at Little Bassa, — the latter under the immediate charge of 
Kong Koba, or Lewis Kong Crocker, as the young chief now 
chose to be named, in honor of his early teacher and friend. 
At these several points, but little separated from each other, the 
mission, though often smitten and cast down, still maintained its 
existence and assiduously prosecuted its sacred objects among 
the people of the country. The assistants, most of whom were 
men of tried character, under the direction or in the company 
of the missionary, preached the gospel from village to village. 
The ladies of the mission were engaged in the schools, while 
Mr. Clarke gave himself as fully as possible to the work of 
translating the Scriptures, and the preparation of books for the 
instruction of the natives. He compiled a dictionary of the 
Bassa language, which, together with the Gospels and several 
of the Epistles of the New Testament, was ready for the press 

* A memoir of this excellent missionary has been written by Mrs. R. B. 
Medbery, from which several of the above-mentioned facts have been derived. 



ADDITIONAL LABORERS NEEDED. 261 

near the close of 1846, but which, in the pressure of other la- 
bors, appears never to have been published. 

In this manner, the mission continued to prosper to an extent, 
in many respects, quite disproportionate to the number of labor- 
ers who were employed in its service. For a considerable 
period, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke, unlike the missionaries who pre- 
ceded them, were blessed with uninterrupted health. Mrs. 
Crocker, however, was less fortunate, and it soon became evi- 
dent that her constitution was wasting away beneath the influ- 
ence of the climate. After one or two unavailing voyages to 
distant parts of the coast, she was obliged to abandon the mission 
and return to this country. She arrived in the summer of 
1846, and though she has recovered her health and is ready to 
return to her station on the African coast, yet the recent 
melancholy changes in the mission have hitherto rendered her 
return impracticable, and she is now waiting among her friends 
for some more favorable aspect of its darkened fortunes. 

Nor did the remaining missionaries long escape the dismal 
fatality that has so often attended the efforts of Christian phi- 
lanthropy upon these pestilential shores. Even before the de- 
parture of Mrs. Crocker, Mr. and Mrs. Clarke had been oblig- 
ed to suspend their labors, and had accompanied their friend 
on her voyage along the coast. Though they returned with 
strength recruited by the voyage, yet it was only for a brief 
season. Mr. Clarke had repeatedly set forth the wants of the 
mission in his communications to the Executive Committee, and 
had appealed in its behalf in the most earnest manner to those 
who were about entering the Christian ministry. But none had 
offered themselves for the service ; and the lone missionary, now 
conscious of declining health and sensible that his work would 
be speedily closed, was compelled to look forward to the extinc- 
tion of his hopes, and it might be the ruin of ail that he and 
his departed coadjutors had so long labored to accomplish. 
He, however, toiled on, sorrowing yet not dismayed at the pros- 
pect of the mission ; and Heaven granted the renewal of his 
strength, and enabled him, for upwards of a year, to prosecute 



262 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

his labors with but little interruption and with encouraging suc- 
cess. In addition to his general superintendence of all the 
stations, he preached in many of the villages, visited the leading 
chiefs of the tribe, and made considerable progress in the 
translation of the Scriptures and the revision of the Bassa 
Dictionary. He also witnessed many spiritual fruits of his 
ministry and that of his assistants. Many of the natives, both 
at the stations of the mission and in the villages where he 
preached the gospel, embraced its truths and were baptized in 
obedience to its precepts. Its influence also became more and 
more perceptible in the character and condition of the tribe ; 
their manners and morals were improving, and all the interests 
of their civilization were steadily advancing by means of the 
instructions and agencies which proceeded from the schools, 
the churches, and the books of the mission. 

It was plain, however, that amidst all these beneficial results, 
the life of the missionary was rapidly wearing away. He was 
repeatedly invited by the Executive Committee to return to 
this country, but he was unwilling to leave the station till some 
one should arrive to take his place and enter into his labors. 
In waiting for this he lingered too long. After a protracted 
illness, which at first attacked him with exceeding violence, he 
sailed from Liberia with Mrs. Clarke, on his passage to America, 
on the 4th of April, 1848, and died at sea on the 26th of the 
same month. 

Thus closed the labors of the last in the worthy succession of 
devoted missionaries sent to Africa by the American Baptists ; 
and thus too must close, with melancholy abruptness, the histo- 
ry of the African Mission. Though it records many noble and 
philanthropic labors and many valuable results, yet it is too 
often only the sad recital of disaster and death to the heroic 
men who have achieved them, — the same dread features that 
characterize all the other missions upon that fatal coast. A 
few assistants were left at the stations under the charge of Rev. 
Jacob Vonbrunn, a native Bassa, and by them the mission 
has been kept in being since the departure of Mr. Clarke. 



ATTEMPT TO ESTABLISH A MISSION IN HAYTI. 263 

The ladies belonging to it are still in this country, but are de- 
sirous of returning to the scene of their recent labors and SOr- 
rows, so soon as arrangements can be made for the renewal of 
the mission. The Executive Committee, however, await the 
proffer of services from men who, in the spirit of those that 
have gone before, are willing to encounter the perils of the 
climate and the hardships of the coast for the sake of the glori- 
ous objects that remain to be accomplished. When such men 
shall offer themselves for the service of the mission, its stations, 
now nearly deserted, will again be occupied; and the philan- 
thropic hopes which have been warmly cherished concerning 
the Bassas may yet be fully realized, by their progress in civil- 
ization and their conversion to Christianity. 

In connection with the foregoing sketch of the mission in 
"Western Africa, may properly be mentioned here the attempt 
of the Board to establish a mission, also for the benefit of the 
African race, in the island of Hayti. It was made in 1835, 
under auspices that were then deemed propitious, but it encoun- 
tered obstacles that were not anticipated, and after a brief 
experiment it was abandoned. The only missionary ever 
employed in the service was Mr. William C. Monroe, an edu- 
cated man of color, who was ordained at New York and sailed 
for Port au Prince in April, 1835. On his arrival he immedi- 
ately commenced public worship and the preaching of the gospel 
at his own house, and by the following January he had gathered 
a church of twelve individuals. In the course of the year, nine 
others were added to the little company ; but no suitable spot 
could be obtained for the erection of a house of worship, and 
the services were still held, though at great disadvantage, at 
the dwelling of the missionary, where but few could attend. 
Early in 1837, Mr. Monroe visited the United States for the 
purpose of making known the wants of the mission and obtain- 
ing aid for their supply. Meeting however but little encour- 
agement, he returned to Port au Prince in June, and after 
suffering much from sickness, and finding the mission still in a 



264 MISSION IN WESTERN AFRICA. 

languishing condition, he withdrew from the service of the 
Board. Since that period, no attempt has been made to renew 
the mission, — which was perhaps at the beginning hastily un- 
dertaken, with too little regard to the expenditures that would 
be required, or the means that were available for their supply. 



MISSION IN FRANCE. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Commencement of the Mission. — Agency of Messrs. Chase and Eostan — 
Appointment of Mr. Willmarth. — Messrs. Willard and Sheldon join the 
Mission at Paris. — Messrs. Willmarth and Willard settle at Douay. — The 
Chapel at Genlis. — Mr. Willmarth leaves the Mission. — Mr. Sheldon goes 
to Donay : returns to America. — Religious Freedom in France in the 
Reign of Louis Phillippe. — Hostility to the Mission. — Civil Prosecutions. 
— The Revolution of February. — General Progress of the Mission. — Visit 
of Mr. Willard to the United States. — Dr. Devan joins the Mission. — Sta- 
tioned at Paris — Religious Freedom under the New Constitution. 

At the meeting of the General Convention in 1832, a reso- 
lution was adopted instructing the Board of Managers to inquire 
into the expediency of establishing a mission in France. The 
revolution which two years before had taken place in that coun- 
try, and which had resulted in placing Louis Phillippe upon the 
throne, had also done much, it was believed, to loosen the hold 
of the Roman Catholic church upon the minds of the people, 
and to prepare the way for the extension of evangelical truth. 
The special objects proposed for such a mission were the revival 
and increase of the Baptist churches there, and the general 
dissemination of the gospel among the people. The Board, 
after suitable inquiries, determined to send an agent to France, 
in order to ascertain the condition of the churches and the op- 
portunities which the country presented for the spread of Chris- 
tian truth. 

For this purpose Eev. Ira Chase, d. d., professor in the 

Theological Seminary at Newton, was appointed, and sailed for 

Havre in October, 1832. He was accompanied by Rev. J. C. 

Rostan, a French gentleman of education, who had been re- 

24 



266 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

siding in the United States. They proceeded immediately to 
Paris, where they soon opened a small chapel in which services 
were performed on the Sabbath and on other stated days of the 
week. Mr. Rostan here became associated with Rev. Mr. 
Cloux, a missionary of the English Baptist Continental Socie- 
ty, and during the winter and spring of 1832 - 3, they con- 
ducted together a system of preaching and lecturing, united 
with pastoral visiting among the people who frequented the 
chapel. Mr. Rostan also aimed to commend the cause in which 
he was engaged to the consideration of persons of liberal sen- 
timents, whose influence might aid in its advancement ; and 
for this purpose he held several interviews with General La 
Fayette, and members of the Chamber of Deputies, to whom 
he fully explained the nature and objects of his mission. He 
was, however, soon invited to officiate temporarily, during the 
absence of the regular incumbent, as lecturer upon Christianity 
before the Society for Promoting Civilization, and while thus 
employed he died of cholera in December, 1833. 

Professor Chase, after spending several weeks fn Paris, re- 
paired to the Departement du JVord, where the Baptist churches 
of France were said to be the most numerous. He found them 
here in a scattered and dilapidated condition, — cherishing the 
principles of uncorrupted Christianity, but often defective in or- 
ganization and subject to the inroads of every species of error, 
yet delighted to learn that he had come from those holding the 
same. Christian doctrines in America, and eager to receive the 
aid which he proffered. He inquired particularly concerning 
the condition of Protestantism in France, and on his return to 
the United States submitted to the Board a full report of his 
observations and the conclusions to which they led him, and 
recommended the establishment of a permanent mission in the 
country. 

This recommendation was adopted by the Board, and Mr. 
Isaac Willmarth, then a member of the Theological Institution 
at Newton, was appointed to commence the mission at Paris. 
Having completed his studies at Newton and been ordained, he 



ARRIVAL OF MESSRS. SHELDON AND WILLARD. 267 

reached the French capital in June, 1834. Here he soon asso- 
ciated with his labors Rev. Anthony Porchat, a French Baptist 
clergyman, and they together conducted religious services on 
the Sabbath — twice in French and once in English — and also 
on one evening at least during the week. 

The instructions of the Board had directed Mr. Willmarth to 
make it one of the principal objects of the mission to train young 
men of suitable character for the ministry of the gospel. He 
soon became acquainted with several of this description, in the 
protestant circles in which he mingled, and two of them placed 
themselves under his instructions so soon as arrangements could 
be made for the purpose. A church of ten members was also 
organized in July, 1835, and additional preachers soon after 
began to be employed both in the capital and at several places 
in the provinces. In the summer of this year Mr. Willmarth 
made his first visit to the Baptist churches in the Department of 
the North, where he was soon joined by Rev. Professor Sears, 
then on a visit to the Continent of Europe, and charged by the 
Board with the duty of advising in the conduct of the mission. 
They found the churches, in this part of the country eager to 
become connected with the mission, and expressing the warmest 
gratitude for the aid and encouragement they were already re- 
ceiving from America. Many of these simple people seemed 
not to have been aware that there were others in the world who 
held views of Christian doctrine and ecclesiastical order similar 
to their own, and they repeated again and again to Professor 
Sears, as he parted from them, their earnest desire that he 
" would not let their brethren on this side of the Atlantic leave 
them or neglect them." 

In November, Rev. Erastus "Willard and Rev. D. N. Sheldon 
arrived in Paris and joined the mission. They spent the win- 
ter at the capital, assisting Mr. Willmarth in preaching in Eng- 
lish, distributing tracts and religious books and writing for the 
press, and at the same time perfecting their acquaintance with 
the French language. In the spring of 1836 Messrs. Willmarth 
and Willard removed to Douay, a large and celebrated town in 



268 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

the north of France, for the purpose of establishing near there 
a mission school, for the instruction of candidates for the minis- 
try and others who might desire to study the doctrines of the 
gospel. The place ultimately selected for the school was No- 
main, a village about twelve miles from Douay, in which was a 
Baptist church. The school was commenced, though in conse- 
quence of subsequent events its design has never been fully 
carried into execution. The church at Nomain, and also 
those of Lannoy, Bertry and Orchies, were at their own request 
adopted by the mission, and as some of them were without reg- 
ular pastors, suitable persons were ordained and set over them. 
From these central points the missionaries and their French 
assistants went forth often through the surrounding country, and 
subordinate stations were soon established in other villages for 
the regular preaching of the gospel. Several other persons 
were employed as colporteurs, who traversed the districts of the 
North distributing tracts, books and Bibles, and in this way 
calling the attention of the people to the simple truths of 
Christianity. 

In some of the excursions thus made, the missionaries or their 
assistants found persons who had long been reading the Scrip- 
tures for themselves, and had secretly renounced much of their 
allegiance to the Romish church. At the town of Genlis and 
some of the neighboring villages they met with eleven persons, 
who, without guidance and without concert, had adopted the 
most satisfactory views both of the doctrines and the ordinances 
of the gospel, and were withal pious and exemplary Christians. 
Seven of these were soon formed into a church at Genlis, and 
Mr. Cretin, a pupil of the missionaries at Douay, was ordained 
and placed over them. Among these persons was a Mr. Her- 
signy, a plain man, who after long study of the Bible had left 
the church of Home, and embraced the Protestant faith with intel- 
ligent convictions and warm-hearted zeal. He rendered much 
valuable service for the mission, and built at his own expense a 
neat and convenient chapel for the use of the church. Permission 
was sought of the mayor of Genlis — for the law of France made 



STATIONS IN NORTHERN PROVINCES. 269 

this necessary — to open it for public service, but this function- 
ary refused to grant the request ; and, though it was often re- 
peated, the little chapel long remained unoccupied, — a memento 
alike of the generous faith of its humble builder and of the fool- 
ish, though legalized, intolerance of the bigoted magistrate. 

During this period Mr. Sheldon had remained at Paris, 
though not without making several visits to the provinces of the 
North. The chapel which he at first occupied was found to be 
so inconveniently situated that it was at length relinquished, 
and the public services of the mission were held at his own house 
and that of Mrs. Rostan, or occasionally at those of members of 
the church. The principal labors of Mr. Sheldon at Paris were 
of a retired and private character, and were devoted to the dis- 
semination of the gospel by other agencies than that of preach- 
ing. In September, 1837, Mr. "Willmarth, having long been in 
feeble health, returned to the United States and was never after- 
wards actively engaged in the service of the mission. His ab- 
sence imposed many additional labors upon Mr. Willard, his 
associate at Douay, who, besides the instruction of his pupils in 
theology, was in the midst of a cluster of missionary stations 
which had been planted by the agency of his assistants, and were 
now requiring frequent visitations and almost constant superin- 
tendence and care. He soon found himself thus, with every 
month, more and more withdrawn from the work of instructing 
and training the candidates for the ministry who were under his 
charge. This was one of the chief objects of the mission, and 
could not be neglected. It was therefore deemed best that Mr. 
Sheldon should leave his station at Paris and become associated 
with Mr. Willard at Douay. The step seemed necessary, though 
it was taken with reluctance, for the prospects of the mission at 
the capital were at that time unusually inviting. The removal 
was effected in April, 1839, and Mr. Sheldon immediately as- 
sumed the charge of the theological pupils, and conducted ser- 
vice every Sabbath in the English chapel at Douay. In the 
following November he returned to the United States, having 
decided to enter other spheres of usefulness at home. 
24* 



270 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

The charter which was made the fundamental law in France 
by the revolution of July, 1830, contained a distinct provision 
for the entire freedom of religious faith and worship. Its lan- 
guage was, " Each one professes his religion with equal liberty, 
and obtains for his worship the same protection." But not- 
withstanding this guaranty of the charter, the humble experi- 
ence of our missionaries is alone sufficient to show that France 
was at this time by no means the home of religious freedom. 
Several articles of the penal code adopted by the legislative 
chambers, were in direct opposition both to the letter arid the 
original spirit of this fundamental law. One of these articles 
contained a statute decreeing that "no association of more than 
twenty persons, whose object shall be to meet on stated days for 
religious, literary, political, or other purposes, can be formed 
but with the consent of the government, and upon the conditions 
which the public authority shall impose." Another statute in 
the same code provided that " whoever without permission of 
the municipal authority shall have granted or consented to the 
use of his house or apartment, or any part thereof, for the meet- 
ing even of an authorized association, or for the exercise of pub- 
lic worship, shall be punished in a fine of from sixteen to two 
hundred francs." The power to grant this permission was vested 
in the mayors of communes throughout the kingdom, and these 
officers were generally Roman Catholics, and so fully under the 
dominion of the priesthood and the church, that they seldom 
favored the extension of privileges to persons whom they were 
taught to despise and condemn as heretics and fanatics. 

Under the operation of laws couched in terms like these, 
stimulated as it often was by a virulent public sentiment, it is 
obvious that the spirit of the charter might easily be perverted, 
and religious freedom trampled under foot both by priest and 
by magistrate. Accordingly we find that the Baptist preachers 
and churches connected with. the mission, soon began to experi- 
ence every species of opposition and persecution in many of the 
towns where they were established. The instance of the chapel 
at Genlis, built by Mr. Hersigny on his own estate, has already 



REIGN OF INTOLERANCE. 271 

been mentioned. The request for permission to open the chapel, 
on its being refused by the mayor, was carried to the Prefect of 
the Department, and from him to the Minister of Worship at 
Paris ; but from none of these officers could a privilege so es- 
sential to religious freedom be obtained. Meanwhile the little 
church at Genlis was obliged to meet in the private houses of its 
members, and even there they were often interrupted by inquis- 
itorial visits from the police or the national guard, who came to 
see that their number did not exceed the limit allowed by law. 
The same hostility was encountered in several other places in 
the provinces of the North. Meetings were broken up, the per- 
sons in whose houses they were held were fined and imprisoned, 
and the ministers of religion who preached at those meetings 
were arrested and punished by the municipal officers, and some- 
times were indicted in the higher courts. In the trials which 
were held, though the boasted provisions of the charter were 
constantly pleaded, the enactments relating to associations were 
uniformly sustained by the courts, and the charter was virtually 
abrogated. 

Such was religious freedom in France from 1840 to 1848, — 
the last eight years of the reign of the citizen King, Louis Phil- 
lippe. Placed upon the throne by a revolution which pledged 
him to a liberal policy, and restricted by a charter which con- 
tained abundant provisions for the rights of the people, his gov- 
ernment gradually became more and more tyrannical and odious. 
Conceiving for himself and his family the most magnificent 
schemes of ambition, he is said to have surrendered himself to 
the control of the priesthood, and to have exerted his kingly 
power, both among the sequestered hamlets of his own kingdom 
and on the distant islands of the Pacific, for the suppression of 
the Protestant faith. It is certain that in the instances we have 
mentioned, and in many others which occurred both in our 
own and in other communions, his ministers and their subor- 
dinate officers were able to close the chapels, to suppress the 
preaching of the gospel, and to arrest and fine and imprison 
innocent and peaceful citizens for no other acts than the sim- 



272 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

pie exercise of their chartered freedom to worship as they 
pleased. 

But the rights of the human soul, in a civilized land, are not 
long thus to be outraged with impunity. The judicial trials 
and investigations which grew out of these proceedings soon 
attracted the notice of liberal-minded men of all parties, and 
the murmurs of disapprobation began to sound through the land. 
These acts of oppression were in some instances reported and 
commented upon by the press ; and petitions, signed by large 
numbers, not only of those who were liable thus to suffer, but of 
every class of Protestant Christians and by many Roman Cath- 
olics, were sent to the Chambers, praying for the repeal of the 
odious statutes and the security of the freedom of worship. 
Many men of high standing, and among them several members 
of the Chamber of Deputies, became warmly interested in a 
question which thus obviously involved one of the dearest rights 
of humanity. The petitions appear to have been little heeded 
by the servile Chambers to whom they were addressed, but the 
privileges which they claimed were sanctioned by the judgments 
of thousands. 

After suffering these restrictions and disabilities for several 
years, during which they were constantly becoming more op- 
pressive and iniquitous, two of the assistants connected with 
the mission were seized and cast into prison for alleged viola- 
tions of the statute relating to associations. Their names were 
Lepoids and Foulon, — the former of whom, especially, was dis- 
tinguished for superior talents and long-tried fidelity as a min- 
ister of the gospel. Their arrest took place towards the close 
of 1846, and they were brought to trial before a subordinate 
court at Laon in January, 1847. They were of course con- 
demned, and were sentenced to pay a fine of three hundred 
francs each, — their crime being, in the language of the Judge, 
that of u having associated with others in the name of a new re- 
ligion, called the religion of the Protestant Baptists." The case 
was appealed to the Royal Court of Amiens, and Mr. Odillon 
Barrot, the distinguished advocate, who is now prime minister 



OPENING OF THE CHAPEL AT GENLIS. 273 

in the Cabinet of the President of the French Kepublic, was 
engaged to defend it. The trial came on in March, but Mr. 
Barrot was unfortunately detained by illness. He sent an 
advocate to appear in his place, who obtained a delay of fifteen 
days ; but the counsel was still unable to attend, and the trial 
proceeded without him. The missionaries, however, were ably 
defended by Mr. de Brouard, an eminent advocate from Paris, 
assisted by Mr. Lutteroth, editor of Le Semeur* who went out 
to Amiens on purpose to countenance and aid them. The judg- 
ment of the court below was modified in some important particu- 
lars, and the fine was reduced from three hundred to fifty francs ; 
but the meetings of these ministers and their brethren were still 
decided to be associations, and therefore to come within the 
statutes. From this decision their counsel immediately made 
an appeal, and carried the case up to the Court of Cassation 
at Paris.f Here it was still pending, and its final trial was 
approaching, when the revolution of February, 1848, dissolved 
the Legislative Chambers, overthrew the monarchy, and drove 
the faithless king from his throne and his palace to wander an 
exile in a foreign land. 

By this event the question at issue was decided without a 
trial by the Court, and unrestrained religious freedom was pro- 
claimed in France. The prefects and mayors and magistrates 
of every degree, who had been created by the fallen govern- 
ment, were now dispossessed of their ill-used authority, and the 
meetings of the Protestant churches were relieved from the 
odious espionage and visitation to which they had been so long 
subject. On the 26th of March the chapel built by Mr. Her- 
signy at Genlis, which had remained unoccupied for eleven 
years, was opened with appropriate ceremonies for the public 
worship of God. The occasion was one of more than common 
interest, even at that period of stirring and wonderful events. 
It brought together from a distance the scattered friends and 

* The Sower, an ably-conducted religious newspaper, 
t This is the highest Court of Appeals. It corresponds to a Court of 
Errors, which has power to annul the proceedings of inferior tribunals. 



274 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

disciples of the mission, and was celebrated as the triumph of 
a great principle which* had long been overborne and crushed 
by powerful foes. 

Thus terminated the struggle of religious freedom in which 
our mission in France had been involved almost from its com- 
mencement. All its operations had hitherto been conducted at 
immense disadvantage, subject to constant surveillance and fre- 
quent interruption by bigoted magistrates and police, who were 
always ready to carry into effect the intolerant policy that ruled 
the councils of the government. Though the annoyances which 
have been mentioned proceeded most frequently from Roman 
Catholics, yet this was by no means always the case. They 
were often instigated or openly sanctioned by members of those 
Protestant churches which were authorized by the government, 
and known as " National Churches," — bodies in which the doc- 
trines and the spirit of the Reformation were but imperfectly 
recognized, and whose conduct in these instances but too well 
demonstrated that intolerance is confined to no church, but be- 
longs to human nature wherever it is clothed with the power 
to oppress. 

During the greater part of this period, however, the mission, 
notwithstanding the hinderances and embarrassments it had to 
encounter, made perceptible progress from year to year. Mr. 
Willard continued to reside at Douay, and though, after the de- 
parture of Mr. Sheldon the theological school was suspended, 
he was still able, in addition to frequent preaching and super- 
intending all the stations, to instruct the ministers and the other 
assistants both in the doctrines of the gospel and in the princi- 
ples of ecclesiastical order and discipline. These principles had 
been singularly neglected in most of the Protestant churches of 
the country, and the importance and the benefits of the church 
as an organized body were but imperfectly appreciated. For 
the purpose of diffusing juster sentiments concerning this subject 
among those connected with the mission, he endeavored to make 
the church at Douay serve as a school in which candidates 
for the ministry, and others who were employed as assistants, 



GENERAL PROGRESS OP THE MISSION. 275 

might become acquainted with the duties of Christian pastors, 
and the government and action of a church. In this manner 
the principles of good order and discipline were spread through 
the stations, and inculcated upon all who were concerned in 
their management; and Mr. Willard had the satisfaction of 
seeing the preachers who were connected with the mission 
growing in knowledge and in piety, and becoming more efficient 
ministers of the gospel. 

At the beginning of 1840, just after the departure of Mr. 
Sheldon, there were in the employ of the Board six ordained 
ministers and five assistants, who preached or performed other 
duties at seven stations and five out-stations, and, under the 
direction of the missionary, had the care of seven churches, 
numbering in all about one hundred and forty members. Four 
years later the number of churches had increased to twelve, 
and of members to two hundred and ten ; and though the num- 
ber of preachers had scarcely changed, the stations at which 
they preached were upwards of twenty. In December, 1844, 
Mr. Willard returned to the United States for the benefit of his 
health, leaving the mission under the charge of two or three of 
the most experienced of the pastors who were connected with 
it. His visit here was at a period when the Board was em- 
barrassed with debt, and the retrenchment of missionary expen- 
ditures was strongly pressed upon the attention of its members. 
By some among them it was thought that the mission in France, 
inasmuch as it was planted among a civilized people and not 
among heathen, ought first to be stricken off. At the special 
meeting of the Convention which was held in November, 1845, 
it was, however, decided that the mission should be continued ; 
and early in the following summer Mr. Willard returned to his 
station at Douay. 

During his absence the mission had made but little progress 
even at the most favored stations, and at others it had obviously 
lost ground. One minister and one assistant had died, and 
amidst the intrigues of the National Protestants and the persecu- 
tions of Catholic magistrates, several of the churches had declined 



276 MISSION IN FRANCE. 

in regularity of worship and in unity of faith. Mr. Willard im- 
mediately set about correcting the errors which had sprung up ; 
but he encountered serious obstacles in the acts of violence done 
to the cause of religious freedom, which, as has already been 
mentioned, were both numerous and flagrant during the closing 
years of the reign of Louis Phillippe. The result, however, as 
a whole, he regarded as highly encouraging. Though the num- 
ber of converts was not so large as he anticipated, yet the great 
body of them stood firm even amidst the derision and persecu- 
tion of their foes, and were obviously making commendable im- 
provement in piety and knowledge of the gospel, and also in 
ecclesiastical order and discipline. 

Early in 1848 Dr. Devan, lately of the mission in China, 
having been obliged by ill health to leave Canton, was requested 
by the Board to join the mission in France. He reached Paris 
on the 8th of March, while the city was still agitated by the 
tumults and passions of the revolution. In a few days he re- 
paired to Douay in order to consult with Mr. Willard ; and on 
his return to Paris he made it his first business to ascertain the 
opportunities for commencing again the missionary labors which 
had been discontinued on the departure of Mr. Sheldon. The 
church had become scattered in the lapse of nine years, so that 
not one of its original members could now be found. Dr. Devan, 
however, soon met with several members of the churches in the 
provinces who, with their families and associates, might form 
the nucleus of a congregation for public worship. He immedi- 
ately secured a suitable apartment and commenced his labors as 
a missionary, intending to explore the provinces of the South 
before finally settling in Paris. The fierce excitements and 
frightful contests of which the city has since been the scene, 
have naturally drawn the minds of men away from religion as 
well as from all the pursuits of quiet industry ; but should the 
storm of revolution be now succeeded by political and social 
tranquillity, we may hope that the mission both at Paris and 
at Douay will yet contribute some humble agency towards 



PROSPECTS OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 277 

blending the influences of evangelical truth with those of re- 
publican freedom, in shaping the destinies of France. 

The history of mankind teaches us by many an example that 
true " soul liberty " depends far less upon the form of a nation's 
government, than upon the spirit that rules in the hearts of the 
people. The new constitution of the French Republic, like the 
charter of 1830, declares that " every one may freely profess 
his own religion, and is to receive from the State equal protec- 
tion in the exercise of his worship ; " but in the same article it 
also provides that " the ministers of the different religions 
recognized by law" shall " have the right of receiving payment 
from the State." Words like these are alone sufficient to cast a 
shade over the prospects of religious freedom in France. They 
show how imperfectly it is understood either by statesmen or 
people, and render it probable that, amidst the shifting currents 
of public opinion, the constitution may yet be made to sanction 
legislative enactments or executive decrees as intolerant as those 
which disgraced the reign of Louis Phillippe. Indeed, indica- 
tions of such a result have already appeared in here and there 
an instance of civil interference with the rights of worship ; but 
they have been of the most inconsiderable importance, save on 
account of the invaluable principle which they involve. The 
tone of public sentiment is far more tolerant and free than during 
the reign of the now exiled monarch, and the missionaries cher- 
ish the sanguine hope that hereafter they may pursue, unharmed 
and even unrestricted, their chosen work of preaching to the 
people the doctrines of the gospel. 
25 



MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

Object of tlie Mission. — Visit of Professor Sears to Germany. — Eev. J. G. 
Oncken appointed Missionary at Hamburg. — Extension of the Mission to 
other States. — Decree of the Senate of Hamburg against the Mission. — 
Petitions of the Board and of others in the United States and in England. — 
Persecution in other States of Germany. — Growth of the Mission. — Change 
of Policy in Hamburg and in other States. — Persecution most severe in 
Denmark. — Imprisonment of the Danish Missionaries. — Visit of Mr. Onck- 
en to England. — Persecution allayed. — Deputation of Messrs. Hackett 
and Conant to Denmark. — The "Law of Amnesty." — Troubles in the 
Danish Churches. — Peculiar Features of the Mission. — Its Connection with 
Religious Freedom. — The Recent Revolution. — Its Effects upon the Mis- 
sion. 

In the northern and central provinces of Germany there are 
said to be established many communities of the successors of the 
ancient Anabaptists, who, under the various names of Remon- 
strants, Mennonites and Galenists, have obtained for themselves a 
kind of toleration from the government, and still cherish doctrines 
and usages resembling in many respects those of the Baptists 
of England and America. To revive religion among these scat- 
tered communities, who were without the pale of the national 
church, and to establish with them fraternal relations and 
Christian sympathies, was the original design of the Board in 
directing their attention to Germany. This design, however, 
was early abandoned ; and the mission, though devoted to far 
other ends than those originally contemplated, has yet accom- 
plished objects of great importance to the ultimate triumphs of 
the gospel in that country. 

In the year 1833, Rev. Professor Sears embarked for the conti- 
nent of Europe with the design of spending some time at one or 



THE MISSION ESTABLISHED. 279 

more of the universities of Germany. He was requested by 
the Board of Managers, at the same time, to make inquiries re- 
specting the religious condition of the country, and to report 
what missionary aid could be extended to those who had em- 
braced the sentiments of the Baptists, and also what could be 
done in general for the dissemination of the gospel. In prose- 
cuting his inquiries, Mr. Sears met with many individuals who 
held the faith of the Baptists concerning the ordinance of bap- 
tism and the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, but they 
were generally scattered through the Lutheran churches of the 
country, or were cherishing their solitary faith apart from every 
Christian, communion. In the city of Hamburg he became 
acquainted with a small circle who were of this description. 
Among these was Mr. J. G. Oncken, a person of excellent judg- 
ment and earnest piety, who, though without an university edu- 
cation, spoke several European languages, and had made re- 
spectable attainments in Christian theology. He was at that 
time in the employ of the English Continental Society, and 
also of the Edinburgh Bible Society, and was favorably known 
to many of the leading evangelical ministers of Germany. Mr. 
Oncken was already a Baptist in the convictions of his own 
mind, and on the 2 2d of April, 1834, he was baptized with six 
others by Professor Sears, in the waters of the Elbe at Ham- 
burg. On the following day they were organized into a church, 
of which Mr. Oncken was soon ordained the pastor. 

In the report which Mr. Sears submitted to the Board, he 
recommended that a mission be established in Germany, and 
that Mr. Oncken be appointed to commence the undertaking. 
The arrangements however were not completed till September, 
1835, when he entered the service of the Board, though still re- 
taining his connection with the Edinburgh Bible Society. At 
about the same time Mr. C. F. Lange, who had previously been 
associated with Mr. Oncken in the employ of the Continental 
Society, was appointed colporteur and assistant in the mission. 

The newly-appointed missionaries were directed to maintain 
public worship with the little church at Hamburg, and also to 



280 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

extend their labors, in distributing tracts and Bibles and in 
preaching the gospel, to Bremen, Oldenburg, and other towns 
in the north of Germany, — a district with whose religious 
condition they had already become well acquainted. A small 
room was accordingly procured at Hamburg, in which public 
worship was conducted on the Sabbath, and meetings for prayer 
and for instruction in the Bible were held on other days of 
the week. A temperance society was also formed, which multi- 
plied the friends of the mission, and soon became a useful aux- 
iliary in circulating evangelical sentiments, as well as an efficient 
agent of reform. The persons who thus became associated 
with Mr. Oncken at Hamburg began immediately to take 
measures for securing a more perfect observance of the Sab- 
bath, and in other respects for creating a higher standard of 
morals than generally prevailed among those of the same class 
in the Lutheran and Romish churches of the city. The church 
increased with a rapidity that even surpassed the hopes either of 
the missionaries or of the Board, and a portion of its members 
devoted themselves to voluntary and systematic labors in pro- 
moting the objects of the mission. 

The different States of Germany were at this period each 
possessed of a national church, which could at any time sum- 
mon to its aid the civil power in the suppression of heresy. 
Such establishments, though they may check the progress of 
free inquiry, can never repress dissent among a thoughtful 
and intellectual people. The human mind, in proportion to 
its intelligence, refuses to receive its religious faith by the pre- 
scriptions of public law, and turns away in disgust from a 
church which embraces in its fold all the citizens of a State, 
whatever be the religious doctrines they hold or the moral 
character they bear. Thus was it among the people of Germa- 
ny at the period when Mr. Oncken began his labors. No 
sooner did it become known that a Christian congregation had 
been formed on the basis of a voluntary profession of faith and 
of baptism by immersion, than many persons, not only in the 
city of Hamburg but in the neighboring States, began to seek 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE LUTHERAN CLERGY. 281 

for information concerning it ; and wherever the missionaries 
travelled, they met with those by whom the new views were 
readily received. In this manner, within three years from the 
commencement of the mission, churches were established at 
Berlin, at Oldenburg, and at Stuttgart, which, with the church at 
Hamburg, contained a hundred and twenty members. In ad- 
dition to these many had been baptized at Marburg, Jever and 
other towns which had been visited by the missionaries. Mr. 
Oncken was specially invited to Stuttgart, in Wurtemburg, by 
Dr. Romer, an intelligent gentleman who had heard of the 
character of the mission, and in a single visit he administer- 
ed the ordinance of baptism to twenty-three persons. The 
churches which were thus formed found each a pastor among 
its own members — in most instances a person of intelligence 
and some degree of education — whom they chose to be ordained 
and set over them in the ministry of the gospel. 

The rise and growth of a new body of Christians, distin- 
guished for their zeal and purity of life, and united in a solemn 
and earnest protest against some of the usages and doctrines 
of the national church, soon became the subject of common 
remark in private circles, and was not long in attracting the 
official notice of the magistrates of the several States in which 
their congregations were established. By the more serious 
members of the Lutheran communion they were denounced as 
heretics and schismatics, who, by their rejection of infant bap- 
tism, were guilty of the crime of promoting discord and disunion 
in "the sacred body of Christ," as they styled their own 
church, — while by others they were despised as fanatics, and 
held up to the derision of the populace and the punishment of 
the magistrates. 

The earliest open attempt of the magistrates to restrict the 
labors of Mr. Oncken and his associates, was in September, 
1837, just after eight persons had been baptized and added to 
the church at Hamburg. Complaints were immediately made 
to the senior of the Lutheran clergy in the city, who requested 
the police to put a stop to their proceedings. Orders to the 
25* 



282 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

same effect were issued by the Senate of Hamburg, and Mr. 
Oncken, with several members of his church, were summoned 
before the magistrates and minutely questioned concerning their 
faith and usages, especially in relation to baptism. No final 
order, however, was taken against them ; countenance was even 
given them by one of the senators, and their meetings were 
continued with fuller attendance and greater interest than be- 
fore. A larger place of worship was obtained for the accommo- 
dation of the increasing congregation, and the labors of the mis- 
sion went on with little interruption from the police, — though 
in the administration of the ordinance of baptism it was deemed 
prudent to repair to a place on the opposite shore of the Elbe, 
in the neighboring jurisdiction of Hanover. This season of 
rest however was soon brought to a close. In April, 1839, the 
senate again attempted the suppression of the labors of the 
missionaries. It issued a decree enjoining the chief magistrate 
of the police to summon Mr. Oncken and his associates, and 
" to inform the said Oncken that the senate neither acknowl- 
edges the society which he denominates the Baptist church nor 
himself as its preacher : that on the contrary the senate can 
only view it as a criminal schism of which he is the sole au- 
thor." The magistrate was further directed " to prohibit him 
from all further exercise of his unauthorized and unrecognized 
ministerial functions," and also to prohibit his associates " from 
all further participation in the same culpable and unlawful pro- 
ceedings." The members of the church, however, immediately 
sent a petition and remonstrance to the senate, which was 
seconded by an address from the members of the Board and 
other individuals in this country, praying that Mr. Oncken and 
his associates might be allowed the exercise of freedom of faith 
and of worship. 

Notwithstanding this decree of the senate, the church con- 
tinued to hold its meetings unharmed for several months ; when 
at length, as was supposed on some new complaint being made 
by the ecclesiastics of the city, Mr. Oncken was arrested and 
cast into prison in May, 1840, — charged with having "continued 



EFFORTS TO SECURE FREEDOM OF WORSHIP. 283 

to preach, baptize and administer the Lord's Supper, according 
to his own confession, notwithstanding the prohibition of the 
authorities." One of the members of his church was also im- 
prisoned for allowing a religious meeting at his house, and one 
of the assistants was arrested while preaching, and the congre- 
gation was dispersed by the police. The imprisonment of Mr. 
Oncken continued for four weeks, in circumstances of great 
suffering and privation, and on his enlargement his furniture 
was sold by the police in order to defray the charges of his 
arrest and his keeping while in prison. 

So soon as these persecutions became known to the Board 
they determined to spare no endeavors, not only to effect the^ 
liberation of the missionaries, but also, if possible, to secure 
freedom of worship for the churches that were now springing 
up in nearly every State in Germany and in the neighboring 
kingdom of Denmark. They immediately appointed Rev. Dr. 
"Welch of Albany, a member of their body, to proceed to 
Washington, for the purpose of conferring with the President 
of the United States, and obtaining his influence with the gov- 
ernment of Hamburg in behalf of persons whose only crime 
was their membership of a communion which in this country 
embraces a large and respectable portion of the Christian 
public. The President, though distinctly declining all official 
interference, received with favor the request of the Board, and 
through the agency of the American Consul at Hamburg caused 
a representation to be made which resulted in great advantage 
to the persecuted missionaries and their followers. A memorial 
was at the same time presented to the senate of the city, signed 
by several eminent persons connected with the government of 
the United States, and by many other distinguished citizens, 
setting forth the high character of the American Baptists, and 
testifying to the purity of their doctrines and the good order of 
their churches. Memorials to the same effect were also present- 
ed by the Edinburgh Bible Society and by a deputation from 
the Baptist churches of England, the latter bearing five thou- 
sand signatures. These representations were not without effect ; 



284 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

though no immunity was specially granted to the members of 
the church at Hamburg, the measures which had been com- 
menced against them were discontinued; and from that time 
they have enjoyed comparative freedom from official annoyance. 

But these acts of persecution were not confined to the branch 
of the mission which was established at Hamburg. They were 
repeated, with greater or less aggravation, at Oldenburg, at 
Berlin and other cities of Prussia ; at Stuttgart, and in several 
of the towns of Hessia, Bavaria, Pomerania, — and even in the 
kingdom of Hanover, where, if in any portion of Germany, on 
account of its connections with England, we might hope to find 
tjie exercise of religious freedom unrestricted. To each of these 
States the missionaries had extended their labors, and the 
views of Christian doctrine which they put forth were embraced 
by considerable numbers of the people ; and in each were 
ministers fined and imprisoned for preaching or for administer- 
ing the ordinances of the gospel ; congregations were broken 
up by the police, and private members of churches were com- 
pelled to have their infants baptized, and were punished for 
their participation in the heresies promulgated by the mission- 
aries. These punishments were inflicted, not on account of 
any fanaticism and indiscreet zeal on the part of the ministers, 
or any unworthy conduct on the part of their disciples ; they 
were all acts of intolerance, called forth by no crime but that 
of dissenting from the established faith of the country, and dar- 
ing to worship in accordance with the independent dictates of 
their own conscience. They were the bitter yet unfailing 
fruits of the vicious principle engrafted upon the constitutions 
of these several States, by which the government was clothed 
with authority to prescribe the religious faith as well as to pro- 
tect the persons and property of its subjects, — a principle 
which, in whatever part of the world it has been recognized, 
has uniformly been productive of the most disastrous and in- 
iquitous results. 

It is true that in many of these places the disciples of the 
new faith were generally of the humbler classes of society ; yet 



GROWTH OF THE MISSION. 285 

the restrictions which were imposed upon their worship were 
not on this account the less wrong, or the less disgraceful to a 
country which had once reechoed with the doctrines of the Re- 
formation. The humble origin of the Baptist churches in Ger- 
many may serve to explain the readiness with which the magis- 
trates inflicted the penalties of the law upon their pastors and 
members ; but the sanction which was given to these cruel pro- 
ceedings by pious divines of the Lutheran church, and by dis- 
tinguished theologians and expounders of Christianity, shows 
the imperfect maniaer in which the rights of the human soul are 
understood even by the wisest and most illustrious of the land. 
They generally regarded the toleration of the Baptists as & 
precedent fraught with the utmost danger to the interests of 
true religion, which, they conceived, could be sustained only by 
the enforcements of public law. This was especially true at 
Berlin, where Rev. Mr. Lehmann was the pastor of a thriving 
church. He was ordained in England in 1841, in order to 
secure a higher respect for his ministerial character ; and though 
his foreign ordination undoubtedly proved advantageous to his 
ministry, he did not long escape the punishments which both 
church and state united in visiting upon those who ventured 
to preach the gospel in forms not recognized by the law. To 
the appeals which were made in his behalf it was answered, 
even by men w r ell known as friends of evangelical truth, that if 
the Baptists were tolerated every species of dissenting faith, 
and even infidelity itself must be allowed, — and that thus piety 
would become extinct and Christianity would be destroyed. It 
was by reasonings like these — which to an American citizen 
appear childish and futile — that the most odious violations of 
religious freedom were vindicated and justified at the enlight- 
ened capital of the kingdom of Prussia ; and that too by theolo- 
gians and philosophers whose piety and learning have filled the 
world with their fame. 

The rapid growth of the mission during the first three years 
of its existence has been already mentioned. These years, and 
several of those immediately following, were filled with persecu- 



286 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

tions, and the missionaries were constantly harassed with ar- 
rests and fines inflicted upon them by the government. Yet 
they travelled through the States of Germany, every where 
preaching the word and every where meeting with those who 
received it gladly. In 1840 there had been established in four 
of the German States and in Denmark, six churches, contain- 
ing about two hundred members. In 1845 there were thirteen 
churches in seven different States of Germany, besides three in 
Denmark, numbering in all nearly fifteen hundred members. 
This rapid increase was the result of no ephemeral sympathy 
or transitory enthusiasm. The persons composing these church- 
es, with few exceptions, continued firm amidst the persecutions 
to which they were constantly exposed. They were often fined, 
imprisoned or banished from their country; yet they evinced a 
Christian magnanimity and mildness of spirit which extorted 
respect even from their enemies, and which was undoubtedly 
instrumental in advancing the cause of religious freedom. From 
year to year, as the churches became more numerous, additional 
ministers were ordained and assistants were appointed, whose 
labors were gradually extended throughout all the leading 
States of Germany, and into the kingdom of Denmark. Thus 
the Bible was held out to the people as the only rule of faith, 
the only guide in worship. Its simple truths were pressed up- 
on the individual consciences of men as matters of the highest 
concern, independently of formularies and creeds, of priesthoods 
and churches. Several works relating to the principles and 
history of the Baptist denomination were also translated and 
published, and were circulated by thousands each year, through 
the agency of colporteurs, along with Bibles, tracts, and other 
religious books, in every part of Germany. All this was ac- 
complished with an amount of pecuniary assistance from the 
Board exceedingly small in proportion to the results them- 
selves. Much of the labor by which they were brought about 
was performed gratuitously, or was compensated by small con- 
tributions from the churches ; while sums of money were occa- 
sionally contributed by benevolent individuals in this country 



CESSATION OF PERSECUTION IN GERMANY. 287 

and in England, for the erection of houses of worship or the 
relief of those who were suffering from persecution. 

After the representations which were addressed to the senate 
of Hamburg from citizens of the United States and of England, 
the policy of the government appears to have become more len- 
ient towards the mission. No formal decree was ever passed 
in its favor, yet the hostility of the magistrates was perceived 
gradually to subside. Mr. Ohcken was again imprisoned in 
May, 1843, for "having administered the ordinances," but he 
was speedily released on application being made to the senate. 
One of the members of his church was fined, and another was 
exiled for a year, for distributing tracts. These, however, 
and a few similar instances, were the last exhibitions of any 
thing like legalized persecution towards the mission at Ham- 
burg. In other German States toleration was not so readily 
obtained, and in some it has been wholly withheld. In Prussia 
a decree was passed in 1842, allowing the Baptists to assemble 
as " a religious community " but not as " a church ; " also per- 
mitting the administration of Christian ordinances on condition 
that it be done privately, and that all baptisms be reported to 
the rector of the parish and to the police. These conditions 
rendered the concession well nigh nugatory, but even this re- 
luctant and imperfect toleration was hailed as the harbinger of 
a higher freedom. At Berlin the missionaries, though not free 
from annoyance, enjoyed far greater immunity than in the 
smaller towns of the kingdom ; a fact which may have had its 
origin in the interest manifested in their welfare by several 
citizens of England and the United States, who visited the 
Prussian capital. In the Duchy of Oldenburg, in Hanover, in 
Hessia, and others of the minor states of Germany, far less has 
been accomplished for the cause of religious freedom, and the 
"bloody tenet of persecution " still sways the councils of the 
government. But even here it has abated its rigors, and the 
members of the mission have often passed long periods of ex 
emption from its inflictions. 

In Denmark, however, the members of the mission encounter- 



288 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

ed the most relentless persecution both from magistrates and 
ecclesiastics. Mr. Oncken first visited Copenhagen in the au- 
tumn of 1839, in company with Mr. Kobner, one of the assistants 
at Hamburg, who had been there during the preceding summer. 
He found at the Danish capital a small company of pious per- 
sons who had already adopted the views of the Baptists concern- 
ing the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. These he bap- 
tized and formed into a church. • The report of these proceed- 
ings was speedily sent through the entire country, and as the mis- 
sionaries were understood to pronounce the baptism of infants 
invalid, they were vehemently denounced by all parties in the 
established church. Letters were sent by the leading clergy to 
different parts of the kingdom, warning ministers and their flocks 
against the propagators of the new heresy, and representing them 
as the successors of the ancient Anabaptists, against whom the 
sternest laws had been enacted in a preceding century. Thus 
all Denmark was made acquainted with what had been done at 
Copenhagen by the missionaries. They were every where 
spoken against, and by none more violently than by the most 
orthodox and pious portion of the established church. By mul- 
titudes of devout Lutherans the performance of the rite of bap- 
tism by persons w T ho had no ecclesiastical license, and the forma- 
tion of a society of those who protested against all civil inter- 
ference in matters of conscience, were regarded as frightful 
disorders, fraught with every thing that is blasphemous and 
revolting to a religious mind. 

In this state of public feeling Mr. Moenster, the teacher of 
the little church at Copenhagen, was called before the magis- 
trates of the city, and, after him, each member of the church in 
succession. They were minutely examined as to their articles 
of faith, and each one was separately warned to abandon the 
new doctrines and return to the national church they had de- 
serted. A few days later the whole body was again brought 
before the court, and each one was again warned by the public 
inquisitor, — who confessed, however, while discharging his office, 
that instead of being, as he expected, a band of fanatics and de- 



VIOLENT OPPOSITION IN DENMARK. 289 

ceivers, they had proved themselves persons of firm principles 
and most Christian tempers. The affair was now referred to the 
Department of State, and, after a delay of several months, a 
decree was promulgated in April, 1840, that their meetings 
should be discontinued, and that they should abstain from ad- 
ministering the Lord's Supper, and from every thing relating to 
re-baptism. A decree like this, however, they could not regard, 
and their meetings, though privately held, were attended by 
larger numbers than ever before ; new converts were frequently 
baptized, and at the end of the year 1840 the church contained 
thirty-two members. Within the same period other churches 
were established at Langeland, an island in the Great Belt of 
the Baltic, and at Aalborg in Jutland. At these places, scarcely 
less than at Copenhagen, the labors of the mission encountered 
the sternest opposition. Messrs. Oncken and Moenster, who 
preached the obnoxious doctrines there, were hunted by the po- 
lice and rewards were offered for their apprehension. 

With hostility like this were the simple and inoffensive doc- 
trines of the Baptists obliged to contend on their introduction into 
Denmark, in the middle of the nineteenth century. These doc- 
trines were the baptism of believers by immersion, the right of 
private judgment in matters of religion, and the recognition of the 
Bible alone as the sufficient rule of Christian faith and worship ; 
doctrines certainly containing nothing perilous to the interests 
of religion or of social order, — yet they were regarded with 
horror by many pious minds, and visited with relentless perse- 
cution even in the land which three centuries before had been 
the home of the Reformation. 

But this hostility was soon to show itself in more violent 
forms. In the autumn of 1840, Rev. Peter Moenster, the pas- 
tor of the church at Copenhagen, was arrested by the police and 
thrown into prison for administering the ordinances. He was 
examined before the Court of Chancery, and directed immedi- 
ately to leave the kingdom. He however refused to obey, for it 
was his native country, and he was in consequence consigned to a 
protracted imprisonment. His brother, Rev. Adolph Moenster, 
26 



290 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

who had been a student of theology at one of the universities, 
was appointed to succeed him in the ministry of the church ; 
but in a few weeks he also was sent to prison for administering 
the ordinance of baptism. Severe penalties were in like man- 
ner inflicted on many members of the churches in different parts 
of the kingdom. They were subjected to fines and arrests, and 
were compelled by the magistrates to have their children sprin- 
kled by the Lutheran ministers, in order, as was declared in the 
royal decree, that " they might not be debarred the blessing of 
immediate admission into the Christian church." 

In this state of affairs Mr. Oncken, in the summer of 1841, 
went to England for the purpose of making known there the 
condition of these persecuted churches and their imprisoned 
pastors, and of obtaining from prominent Baptist clergymen, 
certificates that they regarded the Danish Baptists as their own 
brethren, and their churches as regular and well ordered churches 
of Christ. These certificates were readily obtained, and with 
them were also sent several handsome contributions for the re- 
lief of these suffering victims of ecclesiastical bigotry. Similar 
certificates were at nearly the same time sent from the United 
States ; and in the course of the summer a deputation from the 
English Baptists proceeded to Denmark, for the purpose of pre- 
senting to the king still further representations and memorials 
in behalf of their persecuted brethren. The gentlemen com- 
posing the deputation were introduced at court by the British 
Plenipotentiary, and were aided in all their efforts to promote 
religious freedom by Joseph John Gurney and his sister, Mrs. 
Elizabeth Fry, two philanthropic and distinguished members 
of the Society of Friends, at that time on a visit at Copenhagen. 
The views and memorials which were thus presented to the 
king were received with courtesy, and with many expressions 
of personal interest in the object they proposed, but no change 
was made in the policy of the government. Some mitigation 
appears to have been allowed of the severe sentences which had 
been pronounced by the courts, but no disposition was mani- 



DEPUTATION TO COPENHAGEN. 291 

fested to tolerate the Baptists in the kingdom, and the same 
measures were still continued for their suppression. 

In November, 1841, the two Moensters were liberated from 
prison, after a confinement of upwards of a year. They were 
directed to abstain from all further exercise of their ministry — a 
command which neither of them was willing to obey — and they 
went forth from their imprisonment only to resume their labors 
as preachers of the gospel, and to encounter again the same 
annoyances and distraints from the public authorities. The 
churches of the mission, however, were constantly becoming 
larger and more numerous, and the question of toleration, which 
their members every where raised, had begun to arrest the 
public attention. Two advocates of distinction at Copenhagen 
offered their services as counsel to the Moensters, and some of 
the papers of the city also espoused their cause. 

In order to afford encouragement to the persecuted Baptists 
of Denmark, and also to make still another endeavor to allevi- 
ate their condition, the Board in 1842 requested Rev. Professor 
Hackett of the Newton Theological Institution, at that time in 
Germany, to repair to Copenhagen and communicate with the 
church and its pastor, and also again to petition the king. He 
was accompanied in his mission by Rev. Professor T. J. Conant 
of the Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, who went 
at the request of the Board of the American and Foreign 
Bible Society. These gentlemen reached Copenhagen in Au- 
gust, and going as they did in behalf of two powerful bodies 
of American Baptists, they were welcomed by their distress- 
ed brethren with the deepest emotions of gratitude and joy. 
They could not meet with the church in religious worship 
without violating the laws of the country, but with small com- 
panies of its members they often mingled their counsels and 
sympathies and prayers. They also visited several persons of 
eminence and station, both as ecclesiastics and civilians, and 
commended to their sympathies the condition of these unoffending 
disciples of the mission. The king was at that time absent 
from the capital, but the Estates were in session, and Messrs. 



292 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

Hackett and Conant held interviews with many of the members, 
and stated to them the principles of religious freedom as they 
are cherished by Christians in the United States. The influence 
exerted by this deputation, especially when taken in connection 
with the other agencies which were already in operation, is 
thought to have proved highly beneficial. These gentlemen 
also took pains to inform themselves concerning the state of 
public opinion at Copenhagen, and were gratified to find that 
it did not in all cases approve the intolerant measures of the 
government. " Many individuals in public stations, even some 
clergymen in the establishment, had declared in favor " of toler- 
ating the Baptists ; their cause " was advocated in some of the 
public journals ; pamphlets were written and published in their 
defence, and the popular feeling was beginning to be enlisted in 
their behalf."* 

The only toleration, however, which the Danish king has ever 
guarantied is contained in a " Law of Amnesty," as it is termed, 
which was put forth in December, 1842. This singular docu- 
ment begins by declaring that inasmuch as the Baptists hold 
doctrines which differ from those of the confession of Augsburg, 
they cannot be allowed the free exercise of their religious rites 
in the kingdom. It however grants them permission to establish 
a separate church in Fredericia, where, upon certain conditions, 
they may practice all the rites of their worship ; and it also 
allows Baptists in other parts of the country to assemble pri- 
vately for worship and to administer the Lord's supper, but it 
forbids the administration of baptism, and requires them to have 
their children baptized by the parish minister within the age 
prescribed by the law. 

The law of amnesty was undoubtedly intended as a conces- 
sion on the part of the Danish government, but it was so loaded 
with restrictions that the toleration which it granted was nearly 
valueless, and it has been but little regarded by the ministers 
and the churches to whom it related. They "did not confine 

* The Report of this Delegation is in the American Baptist Missionary 
Magazine, vol. xxii, p. 308. 



TROUBLE IN THE DANISH CHURCHES. 293 

themselves to Fredericia, but continued to hold their persecuted 
worship in other parts of the kingdom. There they were 
still subjected to frequent arrests and constant annoyances. 
The ministers were thrown into prison for administering the 
ordinances, and their brethren were fined in heavy sums for 
worshipping in public, or their children were taken by the 
police to be sprinkled by the parish clergy, and on their refusal 
to pay the fees they were stripped of their goods. But the 
religious influence of the mission was constantly extending ; the 
struggle in which these humble disciples were engaged attract- 
ed the attention of thoughtful minds in all parts of the kingdom ; 
and while many of the most serious and orthodox of the Lu- 
theran church have sanctioned the measures of the government, 
a large number of influential persons, who were pledged to no 
ecclesiastical system, have arrayed themselves on the side of 
the advocates of religious freedom. 

In the year 1845 the church in Copenhagen became distract- 
ed by the " heresy of sinless perfection," which is said to have 
been introduced by the Swedish preachers. It infected, for a 
time, the greater part of the churches in the kingdom, and both 
the Moensters were dismissed from the service of the mission in 
whose behalf they had labored and suffered for many years. 
In the isolated condition of the Danish churches, surrounded by 
foes and jealously watched by a persecuting government, they 
were peculiarly exposed to evil influences. Mr. Oncken and 
his coadjutors in Germany were forbidden to enter the country, 
and the English or American Baptists who visited them could 
meet them only in private circles ; and with their brief experi- 
ence of self-government and self-direction, it is not strange that 
they were carried away by a doctrine which has often infected 
the Christian church. The German missionaries, however, did 
not abandon them ; by correspondence witb the ministers in 
Denmark, by interviews which they held with them at Ham- 
burg and at other places out of the kingdom, they endeavored 
to withdraw them from their heretical views. Nor were these 
efforts without success. The church at Copenhagen has been 
26* 



294 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

purified of its errors, and its members have returned to more 
scriptural views of human life and character. Other churches 
are following the example, and a Danish minister, Mr. Forster, 
who has long resided in London, has been sent back to his 
country by an English missionary society, to instruct and coun- 
sel his misguided brethren. 

The mission in Germany, it has been already intimated, was 
commenced at a period when the mind of the country was begin- 
ning to call in question the authority of creeds and the right of 
the civil power to enforce the doctrines of the church, and was 
thus in a measure prepared for the reception of spiritual truth. 
In this state of things, the missionaries and their earliest follow- 
ers immediately became the pioneers of religious freedom, and, 
in the providence of God, were placed in the front of the move- 
ment which has since spread itself over all Germany. The 
mission from its very beginning has been marked by peculiar 
features. Without any leader sent from the United States, and 
with comparatively small appropriations from the Board, it has 
been conducted in all its various operations by ministers who 
have been raised up among the people it is designed to bless. 
Their sufferings for conscience' sake have endeared them to the 
friends of freedom and of Christianity in every land, and their 
pure and modest characters have gradually dispelled the preju- 
dices with which their doctrines were at first regarded. Their 
churches were gathered in the midst of persecution and hate, 
and the members who composed them were men whose faith 
was fired by a burning zeal. The laymen, scarcely less than 
their pastors, early commenced of themselves the labors of mis- 
sionaries among their countrymen, and these labors they have 
ceaselessly pursued to the present time. In all their journeys, 
whether of business or of pleasure, in all their intercourse with 
their fellow men, they have every where asserted the unchar- 
tered freedom of the conscience — the inalienable rights of the 
soul ; while at the same time they have sown the precious seeds 
of heavenly truth in the minds of the people. 

By agencies like these, the doctrines of Christianity, as re- 



PECULIAR FEATURES OF THE MISSION. 295 

ceived and practiced by Baptists, have been widely disseminated 
in nearly all the States of Germany, in Denmark and Hol- 
land ; and the churches of the mission have sprung up in several 
of the principal capitals and commercial cities, and in a large 
number of the villages which belong to the extended district 
lying between the Rhine and the Vistula, and between the capi- 
tal of Denmark on the north and the capital of Austria on the 
south. In no one of the missions of the Board — that among the 
Karens alone excepted — has the growth been so rapid, or the 
number of converts annually added to the churches so consider- 
able. The spiritual fruits it has borne are of the most gratify- 
ing character. Though the members of its churches are gener- 
ally of humble condition in life and wholly dependent on their 
daily labor, yet they have evinced a Christian zeal and energy 
which have gained for them many friends, and called down the 
favor of Heaven upon the efforts they have made. The larger 
churches have in many instances contributed to the aid of the 
smaller, while large sums of money have been received from 
benevolent individuals in England and America, to aid in erect- 
ing houses of worship, or in relieving the distresses of those in 
prison or in exile. Messrs. Oncken and Lehmann have several 
times visited England and Scotland to make known the wants 
of the mission, and have always brought back with them sub- 
stantial testimonials of the estimation in which it is there held. 
It has been from the beginning, in an eminent degree, a self- 
progressive mission ; it has been sustained in a great measure 
by the friends it has gained, and extended solely by the converts 
its own doctrines have made. Amidst the contempt of ecclesi- 
astics and the persecution of rulers, it has been honored by God 
as the means of signal blessings to the people, and has raised 
up in the heart of a powerful nation a band of converts and reso- 
lute believers in the simple doctrines of the gospel, who, un- 
daunted by opposition, will still labor to extend among their 
countrymen and to transmit to other generations the precious 
faith they have received. 



296 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

Until within a recent period the annual appropriations of the 
Board for the support of the mission have never exceeded 
three thousand dollars. In the summer of 1848, in consequence 
of the growing interest and the multiplying wants which it pre- 
sented, the appropriation was raised to four thousand. In addi- 
tion, however, to frequent donations from private persons both 
in Great Britain and America, it has received constant aid from 
the American and Foreign Bible Society and the American 
Tract Society, and more recently from the American Baptist 
Publication Society. The appropriations of each of these socie- 
ties for this mission have been exceedingly liberal ; those of the 
Bible Society especially have in some years been nearly equal 
to the amount annually appropriated by the Board itself. Its 
origin and its entire progress have thus far been connected with 
the labors of Mr. Oncken, whose generous struggles for religious 
freedom and unwearied efforts to propagate the gospel among his 
countrymen, while they have made him the victim alike of eccle- 
siastical and of civil tyranny, have also made his name and char- 
acter familiar to the Christian public of our own and other lands. 

Beneath the favor which Heaven has bestowed upon his la- 
bors and those of his coadjutors, the mission has constantly ad- 
vanced, even in the darkest days of persecution and distress. 
Its baptized disciples now r number more than two thousand, and 
its churches have gradually increased to fifty, and most of them 
are supplied with pastors and organized into associations for 
mutual sympathy and encouragement. Though embracing but 
few persons who possess either wealth or social influence, they 
are characterized by the same religious activity and benevolent 
enterprise which mark the churches of our own land. They 
have struggled long and suffered much in maintaining their 
sentiments amidst the opposition of powerful foes, but it is be- 
lieved that in all the States of Germany, if not in Denmark, 
they have at length achieved a permanent triumph, and may 
henceforth continue their worship and propagate their doctrines 
without molestation from the government. The latest communi- 



THE REVOLUTION IN GERMANY. 297 

cations from the missionaries represent the whole land as now 
open to their labors, and every where inviting them to enter in 
and reap the harvests already ripening for the sickle. Private 
Christians and agents of the mission are actively engaged in 
distributing copies of the Bible and tracts in every part of the 
country, and preparations are making for gathering new churches 
in regions over which baptized believers are widely scattered, 
and also for sending additional missionaries to preach the gospel 
in the empire of Austria and in Hungary. 

The popular struggle which has recently passed over Europe 
has in Germany, far more than in France, been directed to the re- 
dress of actual grievances and the attainment of substantial rights. 
It was there not an insurrection against monarchy but against 
despotism, and its aim was not to annihilate the government, but 
to restrict its authority and make it responsible to the people. 
Hence its results, though they are less brilliant and dazzling 
than those which have been achieved in France, are likely to be 
productive of no less enduring benefit to the interests of society. 
In every attempt at reform, religious freedom, the noblest pre- 
rogative of humanity, was distinctly proposed among the fore- 
most of the ends to be secured. In the free city of Hamburg, in 
the kingdom of Prussia, and in others of the German States, reli- 
gious freedom is now guarantied in the constitutions which have 
been established, and it has even been provided for in the funda- 
mental law which binds together the confederate empire of Ger- 
many. The great social movement, of which the mission was 
one of the earliest pioneers, is likely to prove in every way most 
auspicious to the progress of evangelical truth. It has changed 
the policy of governments and broken the fetters of ecclesiasti- 
cal tyranny ; it has in a great measure emancipated the people 
from the spiritual bondage of their national churches, and in the 
place of vain traditions and powerless ceremonies hitherto pre- 
scribed by law, it has opened to them the Bible for their guid- 
ance on the road to Heaven. Results like these, aside from all 
the civil triumphs with which it has been connected, give to this 



298 MISSION IN GERMANY AND DENMARK. 

movement a high religious importance, and render it worthy to 
be styled in history a second reformation. 

Beneath the auspices which have thus arisen, the members of 
the mission are preparing to extend their labors to still wider 
spheres, and to prosecute them with renewed vigor and zeal. 
With this view they have recently held in the city of Hamburg 
a convention of delegates from the churches which are scattered 
over the German States. The convention was composed of 
sixty members, and its object was to effect a more perfect union 
of the churches and to secure a more efficient organization of 
the mission. The delegates assembled on the 18th of January 
of the present year, and continued in session eight days, during 
which they deliberated fully upon all the interests and features 
of their new condition as a Christian denomination, and adopted 
a declaration of their faith and modes of worship which was to 
be published to the people of Germany. The prospects of the 
mission are now of the most gratifying and inviting character. 
In every district from which delegates came to the meeting at 
Hamburg, it is received with increasing favor and is requiring 
the services of additional laborers. Multitudes of minds, espec- 
ially among the humbler classes of the population, are dissatisfied 
with the lifeless faith taught them in the national churches, and 
are eagerly turning to the proclamations of a more spiritual reli- 
gion which are made by the preachers attached to the mission. 

By the agencies which have been thus put in operation a new 
religious spirit is awakening among the common people of the 
country, and the simple truths of the Bible are now addressing 
themselves especially to those classes of society among which the 
greatest changes in the social and moral sentiments of a nation 
are found most frequently to commence. From the workings of 
this spirit and the power of these truths we may anticipate re- 
sults of no common importance to the interests of Germany, — not, 
it may be, in the philosophy which is taught in the schools or in 
the theology which is preached in the churches, but in the piety 
which reigns in the hearts of the people. 



MISSION IN GREECE. 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

Commenced in 1836. — Messrs. Pasco and Love at Patras. — Policy of the 
Greek Church respecting the Scriptures. — Appointment of Mrs. Dickson. 
— Return of Mr. Pasco. —Mr. Love removes to Corfu. — Baptism of Apos- 
tolos. — Arrival of Eev. Mr. Buel. — Tumult on St. Speridion's day. — 
Other Baptisms at Corfu. — Popular violence at Patras. — Mr. Love obliged 
to return to the United States. — Labors of Mr. Buel at Piraeus. — Arrival 
of Rev. Mr. Arnold at Corfu. — He preaches in English. — Slow progress 
of the Mission. — Evils with which it has to contend. — Labors of Mr. 
Arnold. — Prosecution of Mr. Buel at Piraeus. — General Aspect of the 
Mission. 

In pursuing the subjects of our narrative from the nations of 
Western Europe to the storied shores of Greece, we find our- 
selves still beneath the shadow of a national church, which 
holds in its keeping the consciences of its members, and wields 
the civil sword for the suppression of heresy. The labor of the 
missionary is still a struggle for religious freedom, and the 
hopes of the Christian philanthropist are even more thickly 
clouded with apprehension and doubt. We are in the land of 
old renown, decked with the monuments of art, and covered 
with sepulchres of the mighty dead, — the land in which the 
doctrines of the Cross were early preached by apostles and 
fathers, yet where genius and letters have become nearly extinct, 
and where Christianity has been corrupted by vain traditions 
and idolatrous superstitions. The emblems of the faith which 
was preached with apostolic fervor in its ancient cities still re- 
main, but the faith itself has died away — the temples of Chris- 



300 MISSION IN GREECE. 

tian worship still stand on their original sites, but the candle- 
stick has been removed from their altars, and their light has 
been extinguished for ages. 

Modern Greece is now divided into two separate States, the 
independent kingdom of Greece, and the Ionian Republic which 
embraces the islands of the Ionian sea, and is attached by a 
kind of colonial relationship to the British empire. The former 
is governed by a constitutional monarchy, and the latter is a de- 
pendent sovereignty, of which the head is a Lord High Com- 
missioner appointed by Great Britain. 

The mission in Greece was commenced in 1836 by the ap- 
pointment of Messrs. Cephas Pasco and Horace T. Love as 
missionaries to that country. They were ordained in Septem- 
ber, and in the following month they sailed from Boston for 
Patras, where they arrived in December of the same year. 
The instructions which they received from the Board left to 
their own selection the place at which the operations of the 
mission should be commenced. They first fixed their residence 
at Patras, a town of considerable importance in the kingdom 
of Greece, situated at the northern extremity of the Pelopon- 
nesus, and containing about seven thousand inhabitants. Their 
first work was to acquire the language, and to inform them- 
selves concerning the opportunities for propagating the gospel 
in the country to which they had come. While thus engaged, 
on finding that there were in Patras but two schools, and those 
designed exclusively for boys, they made application to the gov- 
ernment for leave to open a school for both sexes, which, under 
certain restrictions, was readily granted. The school was 
opened in May, 1837, and soon contained forty scholars. In 
addition to the instruction of their pupils and the study of the 
language, the missionaries found means to circulate copies of 
the Scriptures and religious tracts among the people. These 
were readily furnished in great numbers by the missionaries of 
the American Board who were stationed near them; and, 
though they were required to report to the government a list 



GREEK CHURCH AND THE SCRIPTURES. 301 

of the works thus circulated, they yet contrived to scatter them 
widely abroad, through the town and the adjacent country.* 

The Greek church, though tenacious of her ancient ortho- 
doxy, her numerous sacraments, and .her apostolical priesthood, 
yet wholly refuses to give to her members the Scriptures in a 
tongue which they can read. The only versions of the Bible 
which she sanctions are in the language of a former age, and 
the only prayers which she admits in her ritual are unintelligi- 
ble save to the learned few. The Scriptures had been trans- 
lated into modern Greek by several different hands, but their 
circulation had been exceedingly restricted, and the attempts 
which the newly-arrived missionaries now made to extend it 
were sure to awaken the jealousy of the rulers of the church. 
The Holy Synod early manifested its opposition, and the Patri- 
arch at length issued a decree prohibiting the reading of the 
new Scriptures, and commanding that copies of them should be 
burned wherever they were found. The decree, however, was 
but little regarded. A few priests attempted to execute it, but 
the attempt excited universal indignation, and served only to 
stimulate the curiosity of the people to read for themselves. 

In the autumn of 1838 the missionaries had acquired the 
language, but had not yet decided upon a place in which the 
mission should be permanently planted. Mr. Love made a tour 
of observation to different cities in Greece, Turkey, and the 
Ionian Republic, and obtained important information concern- 
ing the respective advantages of these several districts. It was 
at length determined that one of the missionaries should repair 
to Zante, one of the Ionian Islands, and that the other should 
remain at Patras. Meanwhile, notwithstanding the opposition 



* The copies of the Scriptures which were circulated by the missionaries 
were subsequently furnished by the American Bible Society, and the tracts 
by the American Tract Society. The appropriations of the Tract Society for 
the supply of the various missions amount in all to $55,880. 

The missions have also received valuable aid from the American Sunday 
School Union and the American Baptist Publication Society, whose publica- 
tions have been furnished in great numbers for the use of the missionaries. 

27 



302 MISSION IN GREECE. 

of the ecclesiastical authorities, the distribution of the Scriptures 
in modern Greek was vigorously prosecuted, and the missiona- 
ries had the satisfaction of seeing the New Testament introduced 
as a reading book into the schools of the town, and of daily re- 
ceiving requests from distant places for copies of the Scriptures, 
or of religious books. These were generally sold, instead of 
being given away, and were undoubtedly on this account more 
valued by those who received them. The number of copies of 
the Greek Bible thus circulated in the year was one thousand 
of the Old Testament, and fifteen hundred of the New, besides 
many in other languages than the Greek. 

In July, 1839, Mrs. Harriet E. Dickson was appointed a 
teacher in the mission, and came to reside at Patras. She was 
a Scottish lady of education, who with her husband, now de- 
ceased, had been connected with the government school in the 
island of Corfu. She was familiar with the language of the 
country, and prepared immediately to enter upon the duties of 
her new station. In the autumn of the same year Mr. Pasco, 
finding his constitution enfeebled by the climate of the country, 
was obliged to return with his family to the United States. In 
consequence of his departure the design of planting a branch 
of the mission at Zante was of necessity abandoned. 

The prospects of the station at Patras were now deemed 
highly encouraging. The views of the gospel which had been 
put forth by the missionaries, though strongly opposed, were 
evidently gaining ground and making an obvious impression 
upon the popular mind. The climate of the place, however, 
was unhealthy, and was proving specially deleterious to the 
constitution of Mr. Love. For many months he was obliged to 
suspend his labors, and after repeated trials he became satisfied 
that he could not safely resume them at Patras. Accordingly, 
in April, 1840, he removed with his family to the island of 
Corfu, which soon became the principal seat of the mission. 
This island is the capital of the Ionian Republic, and contains a 
population of about twenty-five thousand, embracing along with 
Greeks nearly ten thousand Italians, English, and Jews. 



TUMULT AT CORFU. 303 

Tlie health of the missionary, though better than at Patras, 
was still inadequate to the labors of his station, and he was able 
for some time to do little more than preach to an English con- 
gregation, and direct the work of a Greek assistant who had 
become attached to the mission. In August, 1840, he adminis- 
tered for the first time the ordinance of baptism to a Greek 
convert. The spectacle arrested the attention of the people, 
and was spoken of throughout the island ; for the rite was per- 
formed in the mode which has always been adhered to in the 
Greek church. The subject of this baptism had long been 
associated with the missionaries, and by them had been thor- 
oughly instructed in the doctrines of Christianity. His name 
was Apostolos. He was appointed to resume the station at Pa- 
tras, where he labored among his countrymen for many years 
with commendable assiduity and Christian zeal. The mission, 
though occupying two separate stations, was yet sadly weakened 
by the sickness and departure of its members ; but in the sum- 
mer of 1841 its prospects were for a, time brightened by the 
arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Buel as missionaries, and the return of 
Mrs. Dickson, who had been absent for a year with her friends 
in Scotland. 

The missionaries were prosecuting their accustomed labors 
with many encouraging indications, — the ladies as teachers of 
the schools, and Messrs. Love and Buel as preachers, the former 
in Greek and the latter in English, — when an event occurred 
which spread alarm and confusion through the mission, and for 
a time proved a serious interruption to its operations* It was 
on the day preceding Christmas in 1841 — the feast of St. 
Speridion — the greatest religious festival of the year. Mr. 
Buel, as was his custom in his walks through the town, had 
taken with him a bundle of tracts, and on approaching the 
church dedicated to the saint began to distribute them among 
the crowd that was there assembled. The anger of the multi- 
tude seems to have been excited by some unexplained incidents, 
which, acting upon the fiery temperament of the Greeks, imme- 
diately impelled them to insult him with opprobrious words and 



304 MISSION IN GREECE. 

at length to assault him with open violence. He fled for refuge 
to his own house, whither he was followed by the mob, who 
broke into the house, smashed the windows and doors, and 
destroyed in their fury the Bibles, tracts, and books of every 
description which they found within. Mr. Buel and the ladies 
of the mission were rescued from the imminent perils to which 
they were exposed by the timely arrival of an officer from the 
British garrison, who, at the head of his troops, conducted them 
in safety to the citadel. The affair led to still more painful 
consequences ; for a few days afterwards, in the midst of the 
excited feeling still subsisting between the Greeks and English, 
a collision took place between some soldiers and the populace, 
which was not ended without the sacrifice of several lives. 

On inquiring into the occasion of the original tumult it 
was found that it had been reported that Mr. Buel had dis- 
tributed tracts against the favorite Saint Speridion, and had 
also charged the people with idolatry in assembling to worship 
his image. The report, however, was proved to be entirely 
false, and the missionary was fully exculpated by the Lord High 
Commissioner and other British officers who were conversant 
with the affair. But the excited feeling of the Greeks was still 
very strong, and it was deemed prudent that Mr. Buel should 
withdraw from Corfu. He accordingly took passage in a vessel 
kindly provided for him by the commissioner, and sailed first 
to Patras and afterwards to Malta, where he continued to reside 
with his family for nearly two years. 

The hostility of the people of Corfu seems not to have ex- 
tended to the other members of the mission, and they were soon 
able to resume their accustomed labors. Mr. Love had for some 
time been engaged in the preparation of tracts, and the transla- 
tion of books for schools and for popular reading. He had also 
obtained permission from the Commissioner of Instruction for 
the Ionian islands, to furnish copies of the Scriptures and other 
valuable works, for the use of the schools of the republic. A 
similar undertaking was commenced by him during his resi- 
dence at Patras, for the schools of the kingdom of Greece, and 



POLITICAL EXCITEMENTS IN GREECE. 305 

it was now resumed, and successfully carried forward by Apos- 
tolos, who devoted himself, in his new station, to the improve- 
ment of his countrymen. He was also assiduous in preaching 
the gospel, and several Greeks who attended his instructions, 
seemed to be converted to the faith which he taught. Two 
of them, John and Kyriakes, who had for several months given 
evidence of genuine piety, repaired to Corfu in order to be bap- 
tized by Mr. Love, who was preparing to leave the country on 
account of his declining health. They were baptized by the 
missionary on the 4th of December, 1842, and on the following 
day started with Apostolos on their return to Patras. Some 
injurious suspicions, however, having been excited concerning 
them and the object of their visit to Corfu, they were assailed 
on their arrival by the rabble, who followed them to their 
houses, shouting " Away with the pharmasonaB ! (free masons). 
Away with the antichrists ! " On the following day the mob 
again collected near their dwellings, threatening them with vio- 
lence, and charging Apostolos with turning the people into 
Americans, and breaking down their religion. They were pro- 
tected by the police, but deemed it prudent to withdraw for a 
time from Patras, and the mission there was in consequence 
entirely broken up. Apostolos took passage to Piraeus and 
Athens, where he immediately commenced such labors as his 
own circumstances and the political excitements which then 
existed in the kingdom would permit. 

The baptism at Corfu was the last missionary service which 
Mr. Love was able to perform in Greece. His health had long 
been declining, and he had already made arrangements to re- 
turn to the United States. He sailed a few days afterwards, 
and arrived at New York early in the spring of 1843 ; and after 
waiting for upwards of two years, in the hope of a restoration 
of health and a return to Greece, he at length reluctantly with- 
drew from the service of the Board. 

The kingdom of Greece, long distracted by violent parties, 
was now on the eve of a revolution, the object of which was to 
secure from the king a new constitution and the guaranty of 
27* 



306 MISSION IN GREECE. 

certain rights which had hitherto remained unsettled. The 
revolution was effected in September, 1843, and the new con- 
stitution which was established was deemed by the friends of 
the mission to be favorable to the interests of religious freedom. 
Its first article, however, while it freely grants toleration to the 
rites of every kind of worship, expressly forbids " proselytism 
and every other interference with the prevailing religion," — a 
provision which virtually annuls that which precedes it, and 
indirectly clothes the magistrate with almost unlimited authority 
to repress every attempt to introduce a purer faith. Soon after 
its promulgation Mr. Buel, who had long been at Malta wait- 
ing the progress of events, removed with his family to Pmeus 
and Athens, where Apostolos, who now returned to private pur- 
suits, had been residing for several months. His labors for the 
first six months of his residence here were devoted to the pre- 
paration of several works for schools and for popular reading, 
and especially to the revision of a translation which had already 
been made of the abridgment of " Wayland's Elements of Moral 
Science," — a work undertaken some years before, at the sugges- 
tion of Mr. Love, by Dr. Maniakes, a distinguished Greek 
scholar and a friend of the mission. The revision being com- 
pleted, an edition of two thousand copies was published early in 
the following year.* This valuable treatise on the principles 
of ethics, which had already been widely circulated in this 
country, was received with unexpected favor in Greece, not 
only by friends of the mission, but by scholars, professors in the 
university and teachers, and even by many of the ecclesiastics 
themselves. In addition to the use made of it by the missiona- 
ries, it has since been introduced into many of the gymnasia 
and Hellenic schools both in Greece Proper and in the Ionian 
Republic, and read by many of the educated men of the country. 
Other works — the publications of the American Tract Society 
or of the Sunday School Union — were also translated and 
published under the direction of Mr. Buel and several attempts 

* The expenses of the edition were defrayed by a special contribution. 



STATION AT CORFU. 307 

were made to have an improved version of the Scriptures pre- 
pared for general circulation.* 

The station at Corfu after the departure of Mr. and Mrs. Love 
was occupied alone by Mrs. Dickson, who still maintained the 
school of which she had been for some time in charge. In Feb- 
ruary, 1844, she was joined by Rev. A. N. Arnold, Mrs. Ar- 
nold and Miss S. E. Waldo, who had been appointed mission- 
aries in the preceding autumn. The ladies immediately engaged 
with Mrs. Dickson in the charge of the school, and soon after in 
some of the government schools of the island, and Mr. Arnold, 
while pursuing the study of modern Greek, commenced preach- 
ing in English to a congregation composed principally of soldiers 
belonging to the garrison. His labors here were attended with 
valuable and encouraging results ; in the course of the summer 
after they were commenced, he baptized three members of one 
of the regiments, and, at a later period, others received the same 
sacred ordinance. Rev. Mr. Lowndes, who had long resided at 
Corfu as the agent of several philanthropic societies in Eng- 
land, and who had also been connected with the commission for 
public instruction in the republic, at this time removed to Athens, 
and many of the philanthropic labors and offices which he thus 
left were assumed by Mr. Arnold. He was also soon able to 
commence a meeting for reading the Scriptures in Greek, which 
he designed should at length grow into a regular service of 
preaching and public worship in the same language. In accom- 
plishing this, however, he was subjected to delays, and encount- 
ered hinderances which he did not anticipate, and was obliged 
still longer to confine himself to preaching in English, and to 
such incidental labors for the promotion of the gospel as he was 
enabled to perform. The mission, considered with reference to 
its original design of benefiting the Greeks, seemed now almost 
at a stand, and the troubled affairs and threatened changes of 
the country raised many doubts in the minds of its friends re- 
specting the desirableness of its continuance. 

* The version of Professor Bambas Mr. Buel hoped to induce the author to 
amend in some essential points. 



308 MISSION IN GREECE. 

In these circumstances, united as they were with the then em- 
barrassed condition of the treasury, the Board at its meeting in 
Providence, in May, 1845, adopted a resolution authorizing 
the acting Board to discontinue the mission so soon as it might 
seem to them expedient. In the correspondence, however, 
which was opened with the missionaries upon the subject, neither 
Mr. Arnold nor Mr. Buel was willing to advise the extinction 
of the mission ; the former, though regarding Corfu as an un- 
favorable station for exerting an influence upon the Greeks, 
was yet of the opinion that the people were accessible to the 
preacher of the gospel, while the latter, at Athens and Piraeus, 
found many arguments for its continuance in the results which 
he witnessed around him, and in the prospects which seemed to 
be opening before him. It was accordingly determined to give 
the missionaries, agreeably to their own solicitation, the opportu- 
nity of making a still further trial before the question should be 
finally decided. 

In this uncertain condition, with the question of its future 
policy and even of its permanent existence still unsettled, the 
mission has continued to the present time, passing through the 
ordinary vicissitudes incident to its situation. The labors of 
the missionaries have been prosecuted with unremitted zeal, 
and have produced many valuable results ; yet the hopes 
which were entertained alike by them and by the managers at 
home have been but partially realized. In the autumn of 1846 
Mr. Arnold commenced preaching in Greek to a small congre- 
gation, which has usually embraced from thirty to forty hearers. 
The English services have also been continued ; but in the 
changes which are constantly occurring among the English 
population of Corfu, and especially among the soldiers of the 
garrison, the congregation has often been greatly reduced. 
The missionary school, however, under the charge of Mrs. 
Dickson, has constantly prospered. It has been well attended 
and has received many tokens of interest from individuals and 
societies, both in this country and Great Britain, especially from 
a society of ladies in Edinburg. The mixed population of 



THE KINGDOM OF GREECE. 309 

Corfu, the dependent condition of the Ionian Republic, and the 
separation which is slowly going on between it and the kingdom 
of Greece, combine to render the mission there comparatively 
powerless over the Greek population. Many incidental results 
of considerable importance it no doubt accomplishes and will 
continue to accomplish ; but the great objects had in view in its 
establishment can never be reached by any agencies, however 
judicious or well directed, that have their origin in the Ionian 
Republic, and especially in Corfu. 

If from the republic we turn to the kingdom of Greece we 
find the mission in many respects more advantageously situated. 
It is there planted among a homogeneous people, who have a 
far stronger feeling of nationality, who boast their independence 
of every foreign power, and who have a press, a literature, and 
civil institutions all their own. The kingdom too comprises 
most of the spots celebrated in the history alike of ancient and 
of modern Greece, and the cities which have exerted the con- 
trolling sway over the Grecian people from the days of De- 
mosthenes and Pericles. Hence it is that every question 
w 7 hich is raised and every enterprise which is undertaken here 
assumes an importance and awakens an interest which it could 
not possess if it originated in either of the seven islands. There 
is however, it must be admitted, one obstacle to be encountered 
which does not exist to the same extent in the republic. This 
is found in the ecclesiastical establishment of the country, — 
styled in the constitution of 1843, the Eastern Orthodox Church 
of Christ. In a country in which the church controls the civil 
power, religious freedom, however guarantied in the words of 
the constitution, can exist only in name; and the treatment 
which both our own and other American missionaries have 
experienced in Greece plainly shows the readiness with which 
the government lends itself to the priesthood in suppressing the 
Protestant faith according to the forms of law. 

The legalized persecutions which were visited upon Rev. Dr. 
King, a missionary of the American Board of Commissioners 
at Athens, have awakened the sympathy and the indignation 



310 MISSION IN GREECE. 

of the Protestant world, and have well-nigh broken up the mis- 
sion with which he was connected. Our own mission at Pi- 
raeus was in the autumn of 1847 threatened with a similar fate. 
Mrs. Buel and Miss Waldo had been teaching a small school in 
that city, while Mr. Buel, in connection with other labors, had 
held a meeting in his own house on the Sabbath, at which he 
sometimes preached and always gave instructions in the Bible. 
These meetings the priests and magistrates determined to 
suppress, and the Demarch of Pirseus sent to Mr. Buel an or- 
der requiring him to dismiss " the school illegally kept in his 
house," on pain of the penalty provided in the penal code for 
teaching without a license. The order was complied with and 
the school was dismissed, but the Bible class and the religious 
teaching on Sunday, the object at which the order was aimed, 
went on as usual. A few weeks afterwards he was summoned 
to appear before the Court of Magistrates of Piraeus and an- 
swer to the charge of having " assumed teachers' duties without 
the requisite permission, of having collected children of citizens 
on feast-days and Sundays and taught them the sacred Scrip- 
tures, and of having supplied them with books on affairs con- 
templated in article 530 of the penal code." The question 
was whether the Sunday exercises were an assumption of teach- 
ers' duties, and the obvious intention of the prosecution was to 
suppress the Protestant faith as held and expounded by Mr. 
Buel. The Court at Pirseus decided that he had violated the 
law, and imposed on him a fine of fifty drachmas, which, how- 
ever, was the smallest sum allowed by the statute relating to 
the offence. The case was immediately carried to a higher 
tribunal, and was ably argued before the Court of Appeals at 
Athens on two separate grounds, — first, that the act alleged was 
not satisfactorily proved, and second, that even if it were prov- 
ed it was not a violation of the article of the penal code. The 
decision of the Court was made to rest wholly upon the first 
ground, and upon this alone they reversed the sentence of the 
Court below, and acquitted the missionary of the charge which 
had been brought against him, — a result which was deemed 



GENERAL ASPECT OF THE MISSION. 311 

both by him and his opponents a triumphant vindication of the 
rights which he had maintained. 

By this decision of the Court at Athens the mission was 
saved from the extinction which threatened it in the kingdom 
of Greece. Its progress since that period has not been marked 
by important incidents, and the religious teachings of Mr. Buel 
have continued without interruption from the magistrates, 
though they have been attended by but few of the Greeks. 
The school at Piraeus has not been resumed, and Miss Waldo 
returned to Corfu, where she was associated with Mrs. Dickson 
until August, 1848, when she went to reside in Zante.* 

The work of preaching in Greek requires long preparation 
and great familiarity with the language. Without this the dis- 
course of a foreigner becomes offensive to the ear of a people so 
wedded to harmony as the Greeks have always been. From 
this cause public preaching was but lately commenced by the 
present members of the mission ; and since its commencement it 
has of necessity been exceedingly limited at each of the sta- 
tions, from the fact that but few have been disposed to join the 
congregations which assembled for the purpose. It is on this 
account, probably, that the mission has accomplished so few vis- 
ible results. In other and minor departments of labor it has 
been less restricted, and has undoubtedly performed an impor- 
tant part in effecting the changes of opinion and feeling which 
have been gradually taking place in Greece. Its schools have 
been well attended, the books which it has introduced into the 
country have been suited to the wants of the people, and the 
copies of the Old and New Testament which it has scattered in 
the cities and villages, both of the kingdom and the republic, 
cannot fail to accomplish valuable results. The spirit of popu- 
lar freedom which has manifested itself in the revolutions of 
Western Europe has reached the shores of Greece, — those 
storied shores which were once its chosen dwelling-place. It is 

• 

* Miss Waldo was at this time married to Mr. York, a resident of the island 
of Zante. 



312 MISSION IN GREECE. # 

evidently liberalizing the sentiments of the people, and, we may 
hope, gradually undermining the despotism of the Greek church, 
which has hitherto opposed the most formidable barriers to the 
spread of evangelical .truth. The missionaries, though gather- 
ing but few fruits of their labors even in fields which have giv- 
en the most abundant promise, are not discouraged. They now 
ask of the Board to be permitted still to continue their stations, 
and, amid the new influences which are beginning to prevail in 
Greece, still to toil on for the spiritual elevation of a race whose 
ancient sires were the early teachers of mankind. 



MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

General View of these Missions. — Earliest Missionaries to the Indians. — 
Appointment of Rev. Isaac McCoy. — Station at Carey for the Putawato- 
mies : at Thomas for the Ottawas. — Changes in these Tribes. — Care of the 
Government of the United States for the Indian Race. — Mission among 
the Ojibwas : its Progress and Results. — Mission among the Indians of 
New York. — Commencement of the Mission among the Cherokees. — 
Appointment of Messrs. Posey and Jones. — Stations at Valley Towns and 
at Tinsawattee. — Civilization of the Cherokees : Emigration of a part of 
them beyond the Mississippi. — Mission among the Creeks : their Emigra- 
tion. — Continuance and Close of the Creek Mission. 

The missions of the Convention among the Indians of North 
America have been widely scattered over the extended territo- 
ries that were but lately held in undisputed possession by these 
sons of the forest. To describe them in full and to narrate the 
progress of each of their several stations, with the results which 
they have accomplished, would require a volume by itself. In 
the few remaining pages of this general narrative it is possible 
to present only a brief sketch of their origin and their most 
important changes, without entering upon the details of their 
history or attempting to discuss the questions connected with 
their progress and destiny. For this purpose they may be 
grouped in two distinct classes, — the first embracing the mis- 
sions which have been planted among the tribes scattered along 
the northern and western frontiers of the United States, from 
New York to Wisconsin ; and the second embracing those which 
were established in the south among the Indians of North Car- 
olina, Georgia and Alabama. In the changes which have taken 
28 



314 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NOKTH AMERICA. 

place in the fortunes of the aboriginal race most of the missions 
of both these classes, within a recent period, have been brought 
together in the territory west of the Mississippi, which is now 
the only exclusive home of these reduced and subjugated tribes. 

At the first triennial meeting of the Convention, which was 
held at Philadelphia in 1817, the original constitution was 
amended so as to enable the Board to appropriate a part of 
their funds to the purposes of domestic missions. . At the same 
meeting also several communications were presented concerning 
the condition and wants of the Indians in the Southern and 
Western States and Territories. In pursuance of the authority 
granted them in the new provisions of the constitution, the Board 
immediately appointed Messrs. John M. Peck and James E. 
Welch as domestic missionaries, and stationed them at St. Louis, 
directing them to preach to the destitute population of that re- 
gion, and also to neglect no opportunity to promote the benefit 
of the Indians of the West. At nearly the same time Rev. 
James A. Ranaldson of New Orleans was appointed to visit 
certain southern tribes that dwelt near that city, and to establish 
schools and religious worship for their benefit. These mission- 
aries however soon found themselves entirely occupied with 
preaching in the destitute American settlements that belonged 
to their respective districts, and were on this account able to 
execute the instructions of the Board relating to the Indians 
only in the most imperfect manner. 

In the autumn of 1817 Rev. Isaac McCoy received his 
appointment from the Board as their first missionary exclusively 
to the Indian race. He had been conversant with the habits 
and modes of life of the American aborigines, and had often 
had occasion to observe their character and condition, especially 
among the tribes of the North and the West. In accordance 
with the instructions he received, he repaired early in the fol- 
lowing spring to Fort Wayne, on the banks of the Wabash, in 
Indiana, — at that time one of the farthest outposts of western 
civilization. In the unbroken prairies which then stretched 
around this solitary fortress dwelt the several tribes of Miamies, 



OTTAWAS OF MICHIGAN. 315 

Kickapoos, Putawatomies, and Ottawas, — speaking substan- 
tially a common language, and presenting alike the same aspect 
of unmitigated barbarism. He found the Indians full of prejudi- 
ces against white men, and entirely averse to their religion, their 
customs and all their modes of life. He was obliged to concil- 
iate their good will and secure their confidence by slow and 
careful steps ; but by the end of the year he had so far suc- 
ceeded as to obtain nine or ten native children to be boarded 
and instructed in his family. The school which was thus com- 
menced gradually increased till in 1820 it contained forty-eight 
pupils, and had become instrumental in establishing numerous 
friendly relations between the missionary and the chiefs and 
leading men of the tribes. 

In consequence of the changes that took place in the condi- 
tion of these tribes after the treaty of Chicago, in 1821, it 
became necessary to move the station two hundred miles west- 
ward, to the banks of the St. Josephs, upon the borders of 
Michigan. The removal was accomplished in the autumn of 
1822, with much difficulty across the then untravelled wilderness, 
and the new station, situated a hundred miles from the nearest 
settlement of white men, received the name of Carey , in honor 
of the distinguished missionary at Serampore. Two assistants 
were at this time added to the mission, and the school soon be- 
came the centre of a little community in which agriculture and 
the arts of civilization were beginning to be practiced, and the 
influences of Christianity to be deeply felt. The church which 
had been formed in the mission family at Fort Wayne now 
embraced thirty or forty members, many of whom were Indians, 
and its exercises of public worship on the Sabbath often attract- 
ed large companies of natives from the adjacent settlements. 
These results however were confined almost exclusively to the 
Putawatomies. 

The Ottawas occupied a district farther north, and had hith- 
erto steadily opposed the establishment of a mission among 
them. Mr. McCoy, and Mr. Polk, another member of the sta- 
tion at Carey, however, had made several visits to them, and at 



316 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS IN NORTH AMERICA. 

length received from them two pupils for the school, and a re- 
quest from their chief, Noonday, that a missionary might be sent 
to their settlements near the Grand river. The chief offered 
to give a tract of six or seven hundred acres of land to the 
mission, in case one could be established among his people. 
The misssionaries, thus invited, determined to commence a 
small station on the Grand river, which they were in turn 
occasionally to visit and superintend until some one could be ap- 
pointed by the Board to take it in charge. The decision was 
hailed with joy by the chiefs and people of the Ottawas, who 
seem suddenly to have laid aside their prejudices and to have 
conceived a strong desire for instruction. This second station 
was called Thomas, also in honor of an English missionary in 
the East. It was conducted for upwards of a year by the mem- 
bers of the mission at Carey, when, in the autumn of 1826, on 
the arrival of additional missionaries, Mr. McCoy temporarily 
removed his family and some of the assistants to Thomas, and 
immediately commenced a school and other agencies for the in- 
struction and improvement of the natives. In the following 
summer he returned to Carey, and the new station was placed 
under the permanent charge of Rev. Leonard Slater, and one 
or two assistants who had been associated with Mr. McCoy. 

But notwithstanding the favorable auspices with which the 
mission at Carey was commenced, it soon reached a stationary 
condition. The Putawatomies were wretchedly poor, and as 
the white settlements were every year encroaching upon their 
territory, they were constantly exposed, in common with most 
of the neighboring tribes, to the corrupting influences exerted 
upon them by unprincipled traders and settlers. Their lands 
were at length ceded to the United States, with the exception 
of a tract ten miles square, which lay around the mission settle- 
ment. Confined within this narrow domain, and with the pros- 
pect before them of a distant removal even from their present 
possessions, they evinced less disposition to adopt habits of in- 
dustry or to learn the arts of civilized life. In these circum- 
stances, most of the missionaries in 1829 withdrew from the 



OTTAWAS OF MICHIGAN. 317 

station at Carey and settled at Thomas, leaving, however, Rev. 
Mr. Simerwell, one of their number, to conduct the school and 
to preach to the church among the Putawatomies. 

Among the Ottawas the prospect was for a long time more 
encouraging. Their chiefs were persons of higher intelligence, 
and, what was of greater importance, they were further remov- 
ed from the settlements of white men, and on this account less 
exposed to evil influences and more likely to retain the lands 
which they occupied. In the summer of 1830 the station com- 
prised five missionaries, a superintendent of the farm and six 
female assistants, all of whom were engaged in the work of in- 
structing the Indians who were settled around them in the 
doctrines of Christianity and in the rudiments of useful knowl- 
edge. Such, however, was the organization of the settlement 
at this time, that far too little was done for bringing its mem- 
bers under immediate religious influence, and there was danger 
of its coming to be regarded by the natives merely as a civil 
community, in which they were to learn only the arts of social 
life. This impression the missionaries soon took pains to re- 
move, and began to make the instructions of the school, the 
services of the Sabbath, and the daily religious worship more 
serious and earnest ; and as some of them were now masters of 
the language, they were able to appeal more directly to the 
consciences of those whom they taught. These measures were 
productive of beneficial results. The truths of the gospel en- 
tered into the minds of the Indians, and their characters began 
perceptibly to improve, and in 1832 several of them gave evi- 
dence of Christian faith and were received into the church by 
baptism. Among these earliest converts was Noonday, the 
chief who had first invited the missionaries to his tribe. The 
influence which he afterwards exerted over his people was in 
every way salutary, and such as became a Christian chief. He 
persuaded them to industry, temperance, and the observance of 
the Sabbath, and united a large number of them in an associa- 
tion for preventing the sale of whiskey and for promoting the 
morals of the settlements. 
28* 



318 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

From this period every year witnessed some improvement 
in the social condition of the tribe, and some accessions to the 
church. Several new missionaries were added to the station, 
new schools were opened, and eight promising Indian youths 
were sent to the academy at Hamilton,. N. Y., in order to re- 
ceive a fuller education than could be furnished them at the 
mission. But the rapid extension of the white population soon 
began to check these improvements, and to subject the Ottawas 
to the annoyances and pernicious influences beneath which the 
neighboring tribes had long been slowly wasting away. A 
large portion of their territory near Grand river was already 
covered with English settlements, and in 1836 its jurisdiction 
was ceded to the United States, and the mission was removed, 
with the Indians who were connected with it, to Richland, about 
fifty miles south of Thomas. Here, through many changes, 
Mr. Slater has since continued to reside. The larger portion 
of the Ottawas long ago removed from the territory of Michi- 
gan; but a small settlement still remains, in the midst of which 
the missionary has been engaged in his often wearisome and 
discouraging efforts for the benefit of this now wasted and well- 
nigh exterminated people. 

The condition and destiny of the Indian race within the ter- 
ritories of the United States early engaged the attention of the 
government, and though it has at different periods assumed obli- 
gations which it subsequently failed to fulfil, yet there never 
has been a period in which either the Congress or the Executive 
of the republic could be justly charged with indifference to the 
fate of these ancient occupants of the continent. Different plans 
were recommended to Congress by successive Presidents, and 
various schemes for their improvement were devised and advo- 
cated by philanthropic citizens in different parts of the country. 
In most of the treaties which were made with their several 
tribes large sums of money were granted them for the support 
of schools, and for their improvement in agriculture and the 
useful arts, and in the year 1819 a bill passed both houses of 
Congress, placing at the disposal of the President an annual 



THE OJIBTVAS. 319 

appropriation of $10,000 for their instruction and civilization. 
For several years preceding the moneys which were appropriat- 
ed by the government for the benefit of particular tribes had 
been disbursed mainly through the agency of the various Mission- 
ary Boards of the country, and it was now decided by the Presi- 
dent that the funds derived from the new appropriation should be 
expended in the same manner. The stations at Carey and at 
Thomas had from the beginning been nearly supported by sums 
paid for this purpose to the Putawatomies and the Ottawas, and 
in 1825 the Board began to receive a portion of the annual ap- 
propriation, which, varying with the amount of service rendered, 
has been regularly continued to the present time. The sums 
which have been thus received from the government of the 
United States amount in all to $104,684, and have constituted 
an important aid in supporting the mission schools among the 
Indian tribes. 

In accordance w T ith what had become the settled policy of the 
government, the Board was invited by the President to accept 
the disbursement of funds which were designed for the benefit 
of the Ojibwas, a tribe numbering about four thousand, and scat- 
tered over a wide territory including part of what is now the 
State of Michigan. They accepted the trust, and in 1828 ap- 
pointed Rev. Abel Bingham to establish a mission at Sault de 
Ste. Marie, an ancient French settlement situated about fifteen 
miles southeast of Lake Superior, and at that time one of the 
principal trading places of the Ojibwas. A school was com- 
menced with fifty scholars, and Mr. Bingham immediately began 
to preach in English to the soldiers of the neighboring garrison, 
and also, with the aid of an interpreter, to the Indians of the 
settlement. Several female assistants were soon added to the 
mission, suitable houses w r ere erected for the accommodation of 
the family and the boarding-school, and a temperance society 
was formed which received the countenance of the officers of 
the garrison and of the white population of the town. In No- 
vember, 1830, a church was constituted, and two persons were 
baptized; the Sabbath school increased in the number of its 



320 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

members, and enlisted the actiye interest of several pious ladies 
who then resided at the fort. The influence of these agencies 
and of the faithful preaching of the gospel soon began to be felt in 
both the English and the Indian congregations. Several indi- 
viduals in each became decided and active Christians, and a 
higher morality spread itself over the face of society, showing 
itself in the better observance of the Sabbath and in the almost 
universal practice of temperance. 

Early in 1832 the attention of the people was specially in- 
vited to their religious obligations in a series of public meetings, 
in which the Presbyterian missionaries also participated. The 
blessing of Heaven was bestowed upon these endeavors, and a 
deep and general seriousness pervaded alike the settlement and 
the garrison. Forty persons were baptized and added to Mr. 
Bingham's church, of whom eleven were Indians, and a large 
portion of the others were officers and soldiers of the regiment. 
Among the persons who became connected with the church at 
this time were Dr. Edwin James, the surgeon of the fort, Mr. 
Cameron, who had been an Episcopal missionary in Canada, 
and Shegud, a chief of the Ojibwas, — the two latter of whom 
were subsequently assistants in the mission. Dr. James, who 
had long been stationed among the Ojibwas, had at a previous 
period translated the New Testament into their language, and 
also prepared a spelling-book for their schools. The translation 
having been carefully revised and pronounced worthy by several 
persons capable of judging of its merits, was printed in 1833 
under the supervision of the author at Albany. At this time 
also Messrs. Meeker and Merrill, missionaries of the Board, 
spent several months at Sault de Ste. Marie in such duties as 
they were able to perform. They, however, soon removed, — 
Mr. Merrill, with his wife and a female assistant, to the Otoes, 
and Mr. and Mrs. Meeker to the station at Thomas, and after- 
wards to Shawanoe, in the Indian territory west of the Missis- 
sippi. 

But this station, like those among the other tribes of the 
North, soon began to experience fluctuations and reverses. 



THE OJIBWAS. 321 

The wandering habits of the natives, the presence of unprinci- 
pled traders and the perpetual temptations arising from the sale 
of whiskey, clouded the prospects of the mission almost as soon 
as they opened before it. In 1833 the pious soldiers stationed 
at the garrison were removed to other frontier posts, and the 
school was for a time broken up and the Indian congregation 
on the Sabbath greatly reduced, in consequence of the hostile 
intrigues of some French Roman Catholic priests who had set- 
tled in the neighborhood. Notwithstanding these adverse in- 
fluences, the members of the mission still continued their labors. 
The Indian school was soon resumed with nearly its former 
number of pupils, and the preaching of the gospel and Bible 
classes on the Sabbath were commenced among the new troops 
who had arrived at the garrison. Messrs. Bingham and Cam- 
eron also made frequent excursions to other native settlements, 
for the purpose of awakening the interests of the people in the 
objects, both spiritual and temporal, which the mission was de- 
signed to accomplish, and an out-station was commenced at 
Tikuamina bay, about thirty miles from St. Mary's, and placed 
under the charge of Shegud, the chief who has already been 
mentioned. 

In May, 1837, Mr. Cameron was ordained a minister of the 
gospel, and went to reside at Michipocoton, an Indian town in 
Upper Canada, on the northern shores of Lake Superior, where 
he remained for several months and baptized three natives who 
gave satisfactory evidence of piety. His visit to this place was 
repeated in the following season, and in the summer of 1839 he 
removed from St. Mary's and established himself on the north- 
ern shore of the lake. The Indians whom he had baptized 
were formed into a church, which, with the blessing of God 
upon a regular ministry of the gospel, soon began to receive ac- 
cessions, and in 1842 numbered thirty members. Mr. Cameron 
had been engaged in a new translation of the Gospels into the 
Ojibwa tongue, and having now completed those of Mark and 
Luke, he returned to the station at St. Mary's, and the out- 
station at Michipocoton has since been abandoned. In the 



322 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

retrenchments which had now become necessary the Board 
seriously entertained the question of discontinuing the mission 
among the Ojibwas, and in order more fully to ascertain its con- 
dition and prospects, they requested the Foreign Secretary to 
visit it in the autumn of 1842. The views which he submitted 
to the managers on his return decided them not to relinquish it, 
and it accordingly still continues, as before, under the superin- 
tendence of Messrs. Bingham and Cameron. Since that period, 
however, in consequence of the increase of the white population 
at Sault de Ste. Marie, its importance as a station has been 
gradually declining, while the station at Tikuamina Bay has 
become more important ; it has now a larger church, and em- 
braces the greater part of the operations of the mission. 

In the year 1821 the Board assumed the general care of the 
mission which had several years before been established by the 
Hamilton Missionary Society among the Seneca, Tuscarora 
and Oneida Indians in the western and central counties of New 
York. These tribes were mere remnants of what they had 
formerly been ; but the first two closely resembled each other 
in their language, traditions, and customs. The mission among 
them was at three different stations, and though placed under 
the general supervision of the Board for the purpose of secur- 
ing a portion of the allowance made by the government, its 
immediate management was intrusted to a committee of the 
New York Baptist State Convention. In 1828, the Indians 
having been reduced in number, the station among the Oneidas 
was discontinued, and the other two stations were united in one 
at Tonawanda, where suitable buildings were erected for the 
accommodation of the school and the members of the mission. 
The progress of the station has since that period presented the 
same general features which mark the other missions among 
the aborigines of the North. The church at Tonawanda has 
varied from thirty to sixty members, and the school has usually 
contained about the same number ; while the natives in the 
neighboring settlements, though becoming fewer with the lapse 
of every year, have made a slow and fitful progress in civiliza- 



THE CHEROKEE S. 323 

tion. In 1839 a church was established among the Tuscaro- 
ras, and James Cusick, a chief of the tribe, was ordained and 
placed over it as its minister. The remnant of this tribe seem 
disinclined to remove from New York to the Indian territory 
west of the Mississippi, and the church, numbering about thirty 
members, still exists under the care of the missionary, Rev. A. 
"Warren ; and two schools also under his superintendence have 
an average attendance of thirty-five scholars. 

The missions of the Board among the Indians of the South 
have been confined to the Cherokees and the Creeks in the 
States of North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. That among 
the Creeks was of short duration, while that among the Chero- 
kees has been from the beginning by far the most interesting 
and successful of all the missions which have been planted among 
the aborigines of any portion of the continent. It was estab- 
lished in 1817, at a time when the territory of the tribe em- 
braced a wide tract lying on the borders of the States of North 
Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. The Cherokees at this 
period, like some other tribes of the South, had developed far 
higher social capacities and energies, and had made more con- 
siderable progress in civilization than any of their brethren in 
the North. They had maintained an independent national ex- 
istence, and had lived more widely removed from the settlements 
of white men, while at the same time they had been induced to 
adopt many of the customs of civilized life. Nor had they been 
wholly neglected by Christian philanthropy. Early in the 
present century they had been visited by Moravian mission- 
aries, and a few years later by agents of the Presbyterian Synod 
in Tennessee ; and the schools -which were thus established had 
undoubtedly accomplished much for the intellectual and social 
progress of the nation. They had now a regularly organized 
civil government, and a code of laws fitted to the protection of 
person and property, and making special provision for the educa- 
tion of the young. 

In January, 1817, a mission of the American Board of Com- 
missioners was commenced among the Cherokees, and in the au- 



324 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

turan of the same year Rev. Humphery Posey received his ap- 
pointment as the first missionary of the Convention to the same 
people. He soon repaired to their territory and established two 
or three temporary schools for the instruction of children, but 
during the succeeding year he was absent from them on a jour- 
ney of exploration beyond the Mississippi. The mission there- 
fore can hardly be said to have commenced till the spring of 
1820, when Mr. Posey, with the necessary assistants, established 
a station at Valley Towns, on the banks of the Hiwassee river, 
just within the southern boundary of North Carolina. Eighty 
acres of land were here enclosed as a mission farm, which was 
supplied with stock and the necessary implements of agriculture. 
Buildings were erected, and a school of fifty children w r as soon 
commenced in w T hich instructions were daily given in the Scrip- 
tures and in useful knowledge and the arts of civilized life. 

In 1821 a second station was commenced at Tinsawattee, an 
Indian settlement about sixty miles south of Valley Towns ; 
at which were settled Mr. Duncan O'Briant and his wife, 
whose support was derived in part from funds appropriated by 
the Sarepta Baptist Association in Georgia. In September of 
the same year Rev. Thomas Roberts was appointed superin- 
tendent of the mission, and several missionary teachers and 
artisans were added to its stations. Preaching was commenc- 
ed both at Valley Towns and Tinsawattee, and a few of the 
natives soon gave evidence of having experienced its power, 
while the general influence of the mission became perceptible 
in the improvement of its scholars and the social progress of all 
who were connected with it. 

Among the persons who had already joined the station at 
Valley Towns was Mr. Evan Jones, who with Mrs. Jones had 
been for several years assiduously devoted to the charge of the 
schools. In 1825 he was ordained as pastor of the church 
which had for some time existed at Valley Tow r ns, and in the 
same year, on the resignation of Rev. Mr. Roberts, was appoint- 
ed in his place as superintendent of the mission. Under his 
general oversight and care it continued to prosper, and he had 



CIVILIZATION OF THE CHEROKEES. 325 

the happiness of seeing several who had been pupils of the 
schools, now members of the church and settled around him as 
heads of Christian families, and pursuing the industry and prac- 
tising the virtues of well regulated society. In 1826 the civil 
organization of the nation was altered at a great council con- 
vened for the purpose, a new code of laws was adopted, and 
the Cherokees as a people were evincing a desire for knowl- 
edge and a capacity for civilization that could not fail to en- 
courage even the most despairing friends of the Indian race. 
Their language had already been reduced to an alphabet by 
George Guess, an uneducated native, who, without any aid, 
had conceived the idea solely from what he had heard of the 
" talking leaf" of the white man. Many hymns were composed 
in the language, which the Cherokees committed to memory 
and delighted to sing both in their own lodges and at the meet- 
ings for public worship ; and in 1825 the New Testament was 
translated and written out according to the alphabet of Guess, 
by David Brown, then deemed the best educated man in the 
nation.* The National Council in 1827 procured a printing 
press, and in the following year the " Cherokee Phoenix " was 
published, — a weekly newspaper of respectable size and execu- 
tion, printed both in Cherokee and English, at New Echota, 
the capital of the nation. It was edited by Elias Boudinot, a 
native who had been educated at the mission school at Cornwall, 
Connecticut, and is said to have maintained a character quite 
equal to the average of contemporary American newspapers. 
By means of the press copies of the version of the New Tes- 
tament and the hymns were multiplied for general use, and the 
weekly appearance of the " Phoenix " was hailed by the nation 
with gratification and pride, as an evidence of the civilization 
they had attained. 

In accordance with the directions of the Board the arrange- 



* This translation was of course exceedingly imperfect. It has since given 
place to versions executed by the missionaries of our own and of the Ameri- 
can Board. 

29 



326 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

ments connected with the mission farm, which were at first 
deemed necessary in order to enlist the interest of the Indians, 
were gradually abandoned, and the missionaries began to devote 
themselves more exclusively to the work of instructing the na- 
tives in the truths of Christianity and leading them to repent- 
ance and faith in Jesus Christ. This change in the manner of 
conducting the mission was soon productive of the most benefi- 
cial results. The attention of the people was directed especially 
to the claims of the gospel, and in the course of the year 1829 
thirty-seven Cherokees were baptized and added to the church 
at Valley Towns. The religious awakening which then com- 
menced spread widely through the nation. It was felt at the 
stations of other missions, and continued for several years to 
improve the morals and to subdue the hearts of the people. 
Mr. Jones established several out-stations at which he preached 
at regular intervals, often to large congregations of natives who 
came together from all parts of an extended region, and who, 
with the dress and appearance of civilized men, always exhibited 
the utmost decorum in the services of public worship. Other 
churches were thus established, and according to the report 
which was made to the Board at the close of 1833, the number 
of communicants connected with the mission was two hundred, 
three fourths of whom had been added during the three pre- 
ceding years. 

Among the Indian converts of superior intelligence and worth 
who at this period became connected with the churches of the 
mission, were three whose names have since become well known 
as Christian ministers. These were Oganaya, Kaneeka, since 
called John Wickliffe, and Jesse Bushyhead. The last men- 
tioned had learned Christianity from the teachings of the Bible 
alone, and apart from all other instructors had embraced the 
salvation which it oifers with an intelligent conviction and earn- 
est faith, which, combined with his own superior understanding, 
rendered him a Christian of no ordinary stamp. He was bap- 
tized by a minister from Tennessee in 1830, and it was not till 
he had collected a large Christian congregation at Amohee, the 



THE CREEKS. 327 

place of his residence, that he became acquainted with the mis- 
sionaries at Valley Towns. In the spring of 1833 the mission 
was visited by Hon. Heman Lincoln, the Treasurer of the 
General Convention, who received the most favorable impres- 
sions of its condition and of the influence it was exerting upon 
the social progress, the morals, and the piety of the people. 
During his visit John Wickliffe and Jesse Bushy head were 
ordained to the Christian ministry, and assigned to different 
posts in the service of the mission, and for many years they 
subsequently devoted their best energies to the religious im- 
provement of their brethren. 

The station at Tinsawattee still continued under the care of 
Mr. O'Briant, who in 1829, for the sake of securing a more 
central position, had removed the school to Hickory Log, about 
ten miles down the Etowa river. At the two branches of this 
station there were about eighty families, in which were thirty 
persons who had been baptized and were members of the church. 
The plan of removing beyond the Mississippi had some time 
before been recommended by the government at Washington to 
the Indians of the several States, and had been already adopted 
by several of the tribes. In 1831 the Cherokees around Tin- 
sawattee decided to remove, and invited their pastor, Mr. O'Bri- 
ant, to accompany them. The arrangement was sanctioned by 
the Board, and in the spring of the following year the Indians 
were settled in the territory which had been assigned them just 
beyond the western boundary of Arkansas. Here the mission 
was reestablished, but it did not prosper. Mr. O'Briant died in 
1834, and though his place was supplied by faithful and assidu- 
ous laborers, the natives constantly declined in numbers and in 
civilization amidst the infelicities of an ill-selected location, 
until, in 1836, the last of the missionaries who remained retired 
to the mission at Shawanoe. 

In connection with these stations of the Board among the 
Cherokees, it is proper that a brief mention be made of the la- 
bors which were also bestowed upon the neighboring tribe of 
Creeks, at that time settled within the limits of Georgia and 



328 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OP NORTH AMERICA. 

Alabama. The attention of the Convention was directed to 
their condition and wants at the meeting in 1820, by a letter 
from Governor Rabun of the first-mentioned State, and also 
by communications from Rev. Jesse Mercer and Rev. Elijah 
Mosely, proposing the immediate establishment of a mission in 
the Creek nation. The proposal was received with favor, and 
in 1822 Rev. Lee Compere, of South Carolina, was appointed a 
missionary to labor under the supervision of a committee of two 
associations of neighboring Baptist churches. But the Creeks 
were far less civilized than the Cherokees, and were fully ex- 
posed to influences entirely hostile to their social progress and 
their reception of Christianity. Their country was overrun with 
unprincipled traders, who sold to them the destroying fire-water, 
and taught them all the vices with none of the virtues of civilized 
men. In addition to this, their passions were constantly excited 
and their prospects as a people greatly darkened by the troubled 
relations now existing between them and the government of 
the United States. They constantly suffered depredations from 
their white neighbors, for which they knew no redress but 
retaliation, and they had lately more than once sharpened the 
tomahawk and raised the war-whoop to avenge the wrongs of 
the nation. In these circumstances it was not to be expected 
that a mission among the Creeks would be attended with high 
success. A school was maintained for several years at Wi thing- 
ton, on the borders of Alabama, and two or three of its members 
and a few other Creeks gave evidence of genuine piety and 
were baptized ; but in 1829, on the removal of a large part of 
the tribe to the western territory, the school was discontinued, 
and Mr. Compere withdrew from the service of the Board. 

Among the Creeks who at this time emigrated to the West 
was John Davis, a pious pupil of Mr. Compere, who still cher- 
ished an interest in the religious instruction of his passionate 
and now distracted tribe. In 1830 he received an appointment 
as a missionary of the Board, and immediately began his work 
as a Christian preacher ; but as he was not ordained none were 
baptized and no church was formed. In 1832 Rev. David 



THE CREEKS. 329 

Lewis was sent to the mission which had been thus commenced, 
and was soon able to organize a church composed of members 
of his own family and a few others who had been baptized in 
Alabama. The preaching of Mr. Davis had been productive of 
good results, and many others gave evidence of genuine piety, 
and were admitted to the church by baptism. The school which 
was established contained thirty pupils, and nearly three hundred 
Creeks were accustomed to attend the preaching of the mission- 
ary on the Sabbath. Eude log houses were built both for 
religious worship and for the accommodation of the schools, and 
the station received the name of Ebenezer. In the autumn of 
1834 it was placed under the care of Kev. David Rollin, who 
with his family and two assistants went to reside among the 
Creeks. He increased the number of schools, and with the aid 
of Mr. Davis, w^ho was now ordained, established new places for 
preaching and greatly enlarged the sphere of the mission. He 
introduced hymns in the congregations for public worship, and 
was able to induce several influential persons to learn to read 
according to the system of George Guess, which was now in use 
among most of the Indian tribes. In 1836 a second station had 
been commenced at Canadian Creek, and the members of the 
churches in the mission numbered eighty-two, a part of whom 
were African slaves. The people were still without the New 
Testament save in English, and Mr. Davis went to reside at 
Shawanoe in order to aid Mr. Lykins in preparing a version of 
the Gospel of John and other books in their own tongue. 

But the Creeks were still a fierce and barbarous tribe, whose 
passions were easily inflamed by the evil counsels of selfish and 
unprincipled white men. Many of their leading chiefs were 
hostile to the introduction of Christianity among them, and on 
the arrival of a large body of new emigrants from east of the 
Mississippi, the nation became distracted with tumults which 
threatened the safety of the missionaries. Mr. Rollin and his 
family accordingly withdrew to Shawanoe. He, however, sub- 
sequently visited the churches, but the mission was effectually 
broken up. Since then Rev. Messrs. Kellam and Mason have 
29* 



330 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

been sent to the Creeks by the Board, and, though each was able 
to reside among them for a brief period as the teacher of a gov- 
ernment school, yet they accomplished but little as missionaries, 
and early in 1840 Mr. Mason, the last who remained, on his life 
being threatened by the natives, was obliged to leave the country 
The churches, however, were repeatedly visited by members of 
other missions in the territory, under whose general supervision 
they continued until the autumn of 1843, when Rev. Eber 
Tucker, who had been a government teacher among the Ckoc- 
taws, was appointed missionary to the Creeks. During a resi- 
dence of nearly two years he baptized more than a hundred of 
the tribe, and formed another church composed both of Indians 
and negro slaves, which soon numbered two hundred and twenty 
members. At the end of this period, however, while the pros- 
pects of the mission were unusually inviting, he was obliged to 
abandon it on account of the sickness of his family. It has 
since been resumed, and is now continued by the Directors of 
the American Indian Mission Association. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

Plan of removing the Indians beyond the Mississippi. — Act of Congress in 
1830. — Refusal of the Cherokees to remove. — Their removal by Force. — 
Influence of these Events upon the Mission. — Judicious Conduct of the Mis- 
sionaries. — Condition of the Mission in the Indian Territory. — Missions 
among other Tribes in the Territory; their Progress and Results. — Growth 
of the Mission among the Cherokees. — Their general Progress in Civiliza- 
tion. — Death of Rev. Jesse Bushyhead. — Present Condition of the Cherokee 
Nation. — Claims of the Indian Race. 

In May, 1830, Congress passed the celebrated bill authoriz- 
ing the removal of the Indians then within the limits of the 
United States, to the unoccupied territory beyond the Missis- 
sippi. Few questions of public policy have ever excited so 
deep and general an interest in the minds of the American peo- 



REMOVAL OF THE INDIAN RACE. 331 

pie, and none probably have given rise to more eloquent de- 
bates within the halls of Congress. The gradual decay of the 
Indian race in every State of the Union, and the sad but speedy 
and inevitable extinction which had long been threatening them, 
had for many years enlisted the warmest sympathies of philan- 
thropic individuals and societies in different parts of the coun- 
try. Among the various plans which had been devised for their 
preservation and improvement was that of removing them, with 
their own consent, to a portion of the western territory that 
should be set off for the purpose and guarantied to them as 
their possession forever. This plan had early been advocated 
by Rev. Mr. McCoy as the one best fitted to secure them from 
the destructive influences to which they were exposed in every 
State east of the Mississippi. It had also been favored by the 
Board and the Convention, and in the resolutions of these bodies 
it had been recommended to the government of the United 
States as a measure of humanity to the Indians. Successive 
Presidents in their annual messages had urged the subject upon 
the attention of Congress, and in 1828 an exploring party, of 
which Mr. McCoy was a member, had been sent to the west- 
ern territory to examine and mark out a suitable tract for the 
reception of the tribes that might be willing to emigrate. In 
the following year Messrs. McCoy* and Lykins were also di- 
rected by the Convention to visit the territory, for the special 
purpose of selecting sites for missions and schools among the 
tribes that, by special treaty, were about to remove from some 
of the Western States. 

At this period, however, while a large number of the Indians 
in the North and some in the South were favorable to a removal, 
serious questions of conflicting jurisdiction had arisen between 

* In 1830 Mr. McCoy's official connection with the Board was terminated 
by his accepting an appointment from the government as Agent of Indian Af- 
fairs. He however resided in the territory for many years, and was constant- 
ly devoted to the welfare and improvement of the tribes. He was one of the 
founders of the American Indian Mission Association in 1843, and was its first 
Corresponding Secretary. He died at Louisville, Ky., in June, 1846. 



332 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

the Cherokee nation and the State of Georgia, and between 
other southern States and the Indians that were settled within 
their limits. The Indians, and especially the Cherokees, claim- 
ed to be an independent people, occupying lands which had been 
repeatedly guarantied to them by solemn treaties bearing the 
signature of the President of the United States. The States 
on the contrary denied to them the attributes of sovereignty, 
and claimed to themselves the jurisdiction of their territory, and 
were proceeding to reduce it to the operation of their own laws. 
The Indians threw themselves upon the protection of the na- 
tional government ; the States urged the independent authority 
of their own legislatures. 

In this state of affairs the act of 1830 was passed by both 
Houses of Congress in spite of the opposition of a powerful mi- 
nority and the petitions of multitudes of citizens. The act pro- 
vided for an equitable exchange of lands with the several tribes, 
for their removal at the public expense, their full indemnifica- 
tion for the losses they might sustain, and for their entire sup- 
port one year after their arrival in the new territory ; — but it 
neglected to provide for their protection in their present homes, 
in case they chose to remain. In consequence of this omission 
their removal became to them a measure of virtual necessity, 
and its subsequent execution by the troops of the United States 
often gave rise to acts of compulsion and outrage and to scenes 
of innocent suffering, which the future historian will blush to 
record in the annals of his country. 

Many of the tribes both in the North and the South were soon 
induced to accede to the terms which were offered them by the 
agents of the goverment, and to remove to districts assigned 
them in the new territory. The Cherokees, however, persisted 
in refusing every offer, and expressed their determination to 
remain upon their present reservations until compelled to aban- 
don them by force. They were now to a considerable extent a 
civilized people, possessing separate interests and a civil gov- 
ernment of their own. They were engaged, like the citizens of 
the surrounding States, in agriculture and trade. Many of them 



REFUSAL OF CHEROKEES TO REMOVE. 333 

had acquired considerable property, and were the owners of 
large estates which, like those of their white neighbors, were 
cultivated by the labor of African slaves. They had also to a 
great extent abandoned the ancient superstitions of their race, 
and had adopted the usages and modes of life which belong to 
Christian nations. Under the teachings of missionaries of dif- 
ferent Christian denominations who had Ion or resided among 
them, hundreds of them had embraced Christianity with a spir- 
itual faith, and were now living in accordance with its precepts. 
Their churches were thriving, and supplied with pastors from 
their own people, and their children were receiving the lessons 
of useful knowledge and growing up under the influence of in- 
stitutions favorable to their progress and happiness. 

Such was the moral and social aspect of the Cherokee nation 
when, in accordance with the policy of the government, it be- 
came necessary to effect their removal from the lands which 
had been guarantied to their fathers as their perpetual heritage. 
They were constantly harassed by the continued encroachments 
of State jurisdiction, and saw their very nationality about to be 
extinguished by a power which they could not resist. In these 
troubled relations, both with the State of Georgia and with the 
national government, their social interests were suffering a sad 
decline, their industry was diminished, their schools and churches 
were neglected, and their hopes and energies as a people were 
well-nigh broken and destroyed. In 1835 a number of influen- 
tial Cherokees, who saw the hopelessness of their condition, 
formed a treaty with the Commissioner of the United States 
providing for an exchange of the lands of the nation and their 
removal beyond the Mississippi. The treaty, which was liberal 
in its terms, was accepted by the President and confirmed by 
the Senate ; but on its being made known to the National Coun- 
cil of the Cherokees they indignantly rejected it, disowned the 
authority of the persons who made it, and reiterated their 
determination not to remove until compelled by superior power. 

Meanwhile the President had caused to be set apart for the 
reception of the several tribes the unoccupied territory lying 



334 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

west of the States of Arkansas and Missouri, and extending 
six hundred miles from south to north and from three to six 
hundred miles from east to west. He regarded the treaty with 
the Cherokees as valid and proceeded to prepare for its execu- 
tion, still hoping that the nation would comply with its terms 
without the interposition of force. But in this he was disap- 
pointed, and he decided to employ military array. Troops of 
the United States to the number of ten thousand were gradually 
collected within their territory, and an order was issued to Major 
General Scott to commence the removal of the entire nation on 
the 24th of May, 1838. The order was executed by the com- 
manding general with the utmost regard for humanity which he 
was able to secure ; but the forced removal of a whole commu- 
nity of sixteen thousand people over a route nearly eight hundred 
miles in length could not be effected without exposing them to 
immense sufferings and to numberless depredations from wicked 
and lawless men. When the appointed day arrived a few fled 
to the mountains to escape the arrest which awaited them ; but 
the greater proportion — the old and the young, sages wise in 
council and warriors brave in battle — yielded themselves up 
without a struggle as prisoners to the troops, and were collected 
into encampments under the guard of sentinels, in preparation 
for their final march to a country which they had never beheld. 
The scene was of the most affecting character, and presents a 
subject on which the poet or the painter might well exercise 
the loftiest genius of his art. It was a nation in captivity, — 
about to be driven by force from their ancient seats, from the 
fields they had learned to cultivate, and from the graves which 
contained the ashes of their dead. 

Three thousand of the unhappy captives commenced their 
journey in June, 1838, under the direction of agents of the 
United States, and the rest of the nation, in consequence of the 
petitions which they addressed to General Scott, were suffered 
to remain till the following September, when, the sickly season 
of summer being past, they voluntarily removed in companies 
of about a thousand each, under leaders of their own appoint- 



INFLUENCE OF REMOVAL ON THE MISSION. 335 

merit. Messrs. Jones and Bushyhead each had the charge of 
one of these emigrant bandstand have described with touching 
minuteness the incidents of their sorrowful march. The sev- 
eral detachments were four or five months in reaching the place 
of their destination, and on their arrival it was found that not 
less than four thousand, or one fourth part of the entire nation, 
had perished by the fatigues and disasters of the way. Other 
tribes had preceded them to this common home of their race, 
and there were now nearly a hundred thousand collected within 
the territory which had been assigned to them. In this manner 
was executed a measure of public policy which, though stern 
and cruel in many of its features, has undoubtedly resulted in 
the benefit of the Indian race. It has arrested their decline 
and delayed for an indefinite period the extinction which we 
dare not hope they can ever wholly escape. 

We turn now to consider the influence which these events 
exerted upon the progress of the mission among the Cherokees. 
Fortunately for its interests its principal stations were not 
within the jurisdiction of Georgia, the State which more than 
any other w r as bent upon annihilating the independence of the 
nation. The missionaries were on this account interrupted in 
their labors far less than were those of the American Board, who 
were stationed at Brainerd and New Echota. The Indians also 
who occupied the towns in the retired valley of the Hiwassee, 
where Mr. Jones and his associates resided, were less distracted 
by the troubles of the period than were their brethren in other 
parts of the nation. The deep religious interest which com- 
menced in 1830, and which by the close of 1835 had led to the 
baptism of three hundred, continued almost without interruption 
through the darkest days of their adversity to the period of 
their removal ; and even during their dismal journey it was 
scarcely abated in the detachments w T hich contained the mem- 
bers of the mission and their several churches. Their evening 
encampments resounded with the voice of prayer and the song 
of praise, and the secluded streams by which they rested in 
their wearisome march were sometimes consecrated by the 



336 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

baptism of new believers. Their national calamities seemed the 
occasion for the more abundant display of the grace of God in 
turning them to himself and in conferring upon them the bless- 
ings of the gospel. 

During all this trying period Mr. Jones and his associates 
appear to have conducted the mission with admirable judgment 
and discretion. In common with other missionaries among the 
Cherokees they were often suspected of interference with the 
policy of the government, and were once arrested by officers of 
the United States and removed from their stations; but in the 
spirit of conscious innocence they still visited their churches and 
continued their labors as preachers of the gospel. The in- 
fluence which they exerted was such as became them as Chris- 
tian missionaries and as spiritual guides and friends of the 
people ; and the fidelity with which they adhered to the nation 
through all its gloomy fortunes is a triumphant proof of the sin- 
cerity of their zeal and the purity of their designs. They shared 
the discomforts and perils of the journey, and on the arrival of 
the successive detachments in their appointed district they gave 
them counsel and aid in reorganizing their settlements and re- 
uniting their churches. In this manner, though the social in- 
terests and moral habits of the Cherokees had suffered a serious 
shock from the troubled condition of their civil affairs, ye,t on 
their arrival at their new home the labors of the mission 
among them were almost immediately resumed, and soon began 
to be attended with their wonted results. 

At the close of the year following the settlement of the na- 
tion in the western territory Mr. Jones returned to Tennessee, 
where his family was still residing, and also visited the Eastern 
States and the members of the Board at Boston. The accounts 
which he gave of the progress of civilization and Christianity 
among the Cherokees created new interest in behalf of the 
mission and led to immediate measures for its enlargement. 
In June, 1841, accompanied by his family he reached the In- 
dian territory, and again entered upon the duties of his station, 
after an absence of eighteen months. During this period the 



MISSION AT SHAWANOE. 337 

churches had enjoyed great prosperity; their numbers had 
been increased by the addition of upwards of two .hundred, and 
nearly a hundred more were baptized before the close of the 
year. Additional houses of worship had been erected, and a 
portion of the public money had been set apart by the National 
Council as a permanent fund for the support of schools, in 
which the Bible was always to be used as a book of instruction. 
The people were now for the most part settled upon their own 
farms, and were rapidly recovering from the evils incident to 
their recent changes. Industry resumed its wonted activity, 
and the wilderness began to bloom beneath the labors of their 
agriculture, while other tribes seeing the comforts they enjoyed 
seemed disposed to follow their example and emulate their pro- 
gress in civilization. 

In addition to the missions among the tribes still remaining 
east of the Mississippi, there were now within the limits of the 
Indian territory nine missions of the Board, at which were 
stationed twenty-four missionaries and assistants together with 
twelve native preachers. These were among the Shawanoes, 
the Delawares, the Putawatomies, the Ottawas, the Otoes, the 
Omahas, the Creeks, the Choctaws, and the Cherokees. Most 
of them were of comparatively recent origin, and some were 
little more than government schools under the charge of teachers 
recommended by the Board, who also preached on the Sabbath 
to the respective tribes among whom they were stationed. This 
number was soon enlarged by additions to the Cherokee mission, 
and in 1841 the missionaries and teachers who were connected 
with the Shawanoes, Ottawas, Putawatomies, and Delawares — 
tribes contiguous to each other — were united in a single mis- 
sion, of which the principal seat was fixed at Shawanoe and a 
subordinate station in each of the other tribes. 

At this station there had been a printing-press since 1833, at 
which the Gospel of Matthew, several school books and a hymn 
book had been printed in the languages of the Shawanoes, the 
Ottawas, and the Delawares. A newspaper called the " Shaw- 
anoe Sun" had also for several years been edited and published 
30 



338 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

at the mission. Since that time the Gospel of John has been 
translated and printed in Shawanoe, and a few books in Eng- 
lish, which is taught in all the schools and is in common use 
among the tribes. In the autumn of 1842, some distrust having 
been shown by several chiefs towards the members of the mis- 
sion, its operations were for a time suspended, and some of the 
missionaries were threatened with violence by the Indians. Mr. 
Pratt, who had charge of the press, went to reside at Stock- 
bridge, where a branch of the church had been established 
among the Stockbridge tribe, and of this branch he was now 
ordained the pastor. At nearly the same time there arrived at 
Shawanoe Rev. J. S. Bacon, a member of the Board, who had 
been appointed to visit the several missions of the Indian terri- 
tory. His arrival was exceedingly opportune, and his presence 
and the explanations and assurances which he gave exerted the 
happiest influence in allaying the excited feelings which then 
prevailed in the tribe. Mr. Bacon extended his visit also to the 
Cherokees, the Creeks, and the Choctaws, and to some other 
tribes in which the Board have no stations, and collected many 
important facts and views respecting the present condition of the 
Indian race, the progress of the missions and the benefits they 
are conferring. Since that period the labors of the missionaries 
have gone on without interruption, and though the tribes on 
which they are bestowed are gradually wasting away, yet they 
have been attended with many gratifying results. Rev. Messrs. 
Barker, Pratt, and Meeker, with their wives and Miss E. S. 
Morse, a teacher, and three native assistants, now constitute the 
resolute and hopeful band who are sustaining the interests of 
civilization and Christianity at their respective stations among 
the Shawanoes, the Delawares and the Ottawas. 

Of the remaining missions in the Indian territory, that among 
the Creeks has already been considered ; that among the Choc- 
taws was continued for several years under the charge of Rev. 
R. D. Potts, with an occasional assistant, but amidst the em- 
barrassments of the Board in 1843 it was relinquished, and 
has since been taken under the care of the American Indian 



PROGRESS OF CHEROKEE MISSION. 339 

Mission Association. Those among the Otoes and the Omahas 
have also yielded to the same necessity, and the only missions 
in the territory that now remain under the care of the Board 
are the Shawanoe and the Cherokee. 

To the latter of these missions we now return, and trace the 
progress it has made since the arrival of Mr. Jones at his sta- 
tion in the summer of 1841. Though unmarked by striking 
events, it is yet a progress of civilization and of Christian feel- 
ing, intelligence and culture, which imparts an interest even to 
the statistics in which it must be recorded, and awakens the 
highest hopes for the people by whom it has been realized. 
The mission has its principal seat at Cherokee, which is 
three miles west of the boundary of Arkansas, and the portion 
of the nation who are connected with it reside within a circuit 
of forty miles on the north, the west and the south. Within 
this tract there are live stations, at each of which is a church, 
and an equal number of out-stations at which preaching is regu- 
larly maintained. In the autumn of 1843 the mission was fur- 
nished with a press and printing establishment, which added 
greatly to its efficiency and its influence with the nation. It 
was intrusted to the management of Mr. H. Upham, a printer 
by trade ; and at the same time Rev. W. P. Upham became 
associated with Mr. Jones in preaching and in the care of 
the churches and stations. At this press the book of Genesis 
and about half the books of the New Testament have been 
printed in Cherokee, together with a number of school-books, 
tracts, and other religious works. A periodical, known as the 
" Cherokee Messenger," was commenced by Mr. Upham in 
1844, and has since been continued by the members of the 
mission. To Mr. Jones and the intelligent native assistants 
whom he has employed has been assigned the work of prepar- 
ing a version of the New Testament in Cherokee. It was com- 
menced in 1842 and completed in 1847, and after a careful 
revision is now passing through the press. The book of Gene- 
sis was also translated entirely by Mr. Bushyhead. Among 
the works which have been provided for the reading of the na- 



340 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

tion is the Pilgrim's Progress; that wonderful book, which, 
though written in the cell of a jail by an illiterate Baptist 
preacher whom his own age knew only to persecute and despise, 
has yet attained a rank among the noblest productions of liter- 
ary genius, and, translated into the languages of many nations, 
has taught the lessons of Christian faith to multitudes of persons 
in every grade of civilization and in every condition of life — 
literally to Jew and Greek, to barbarian, bond and free. 

The duty of superintending the interests of the stations has 
been assigned to Messrs. Jones and Upham, who also preach at 
Cherokee, while the work of travelling through the territory 
and preaching at the out-stations has been usually performed 
by the native pastors, most of whom have been long in the ser- 
vice of the mission and have proved themselves men of supe- 
rior judgment and fidelity. Their labors have been signally 
blessed by Him to whose cause they have been devoted. 
Every year has brought with it new accessions to the band of 
Christian disciples, and has witnessed their growth in the social 
charities and spiritual graces which the gospel enjoins. The 
churches, which on their arrival in the territory in 1839 con- 
tained about five hundred members, now number more than 
twelve hundred, to whose character for piety and zeal the mis- 
sionaries bear the most gratifying testimony. The civil feuds 
generated in the nation by the various questions connected with 
their removal from Georgia have occasionally been revived, 
and have sometimes impelled the rival factions to the verge of 
violence. From this cause the progress of the Cherokees in 
some years has been seriously checked, and passions were ex- 
cited among them which threatened to bear them back to the 
barbarism from which they had but lately emerged. These 
feuds, however, it is hoped are now extinguished, and every 
outward hinderance to their social and religious advancement is 
effectually removed. To the promotion of this advancement 
the National Council is earnestly and wisely devoted, as is prov- 
ed by the whole course of its legislation. The school system of 
the nation is far in advance of that of many of the frontier 



INDIAN CIVILIZATION. 341 

States of the Union, and would do no discredit even to older and 
more favored portions of the country. Indeed so numerous 
and elevated have the national schools now become, that several 
of those formerly sustained by the mission have been discon- 
tinued, and their teachers removed to other tribes. 

The summer of 1845 was a sickly season among the Chero- 
kees, and the month of July was marked in the history of the 
mission by the death of Rev. Jesse Bushyhead, the ablest and 
most successful of the native preachers, and one of the ablest 
and most energetic men of the nation to which he belonged. 
He was one of its earliest pioneers in civilization, and one of 
the noblest exemplifications of Christian character it has ever 
produced. With the interest of an intelligent patriot in its for- 
tunes, he engaged earnestly in attempting to avert the troubles 
which threatened it and participated in many of the most impor 
tant negotiations relating to its removal beyond the Mississippi. 
In 1833 he was ordained to the Christian ministry, and became 
pastor of a church, — an office in which he continued to the end 
of his life, a faithful preacher of righteousness to the people of 
his charge. In addition to his services as a missionary he was 
also appointed Chief Justice of the Cherokees after their settle- 
ment in the new territory, and in this station, which he still 
held at the time of his death, through many trying periods of 
national affairs, he was always distinguished for his wise admin- 
istration of even-handed justice. His memory will long be 
cherished in the nation with the respect that is due to a high- 
minded councillor and magistrate, and a faithful minister of the 
gospel. 

The Indian population with which our missions are now con- 
nected in the several tribes does not exceed thirty thousand, 
and this number is gradually diminishing in accordance with 
what appears to be the destiny of their race, even in its most 
favorable conditions. Of these tribes the Cherokees are un- 
doubtedly the most nearly civilized. Among them the preach- 
ing of the gospel has been attended with signal success ; conver- 
sions are as frequent as in the congregations of New England, 
29* 



342 MISSIONS AMONG THE INDIANS OF NORTH AMERICA. 

and the institutions of Christianity may be considered as already 
permanently established. They need only to be furnished with 
educated teachers and pastors in order to secure for themselves 
the sure progress of a Christian people. When this want shall 
have been supplied, even though the mission should be with- 
drawn, we may anticipate for the Cherokee nation during the 
remnant of their existence as a people, the continued bless- 
ings of social order, of popular instruction and of Christian 
worship. 

The missions among the Indians of North America, though 
requiring a piety and zeal as self-sacrificing and devoted, and 
often prosecuted amid perils and privations as difficult to be 
borne, as those which belong to any other mission, have yet, it 
must be admitted, been regarded with far less interest by the 
Christian public both of our own and of other denominations. 
This may be in part owing to their comparative proximity, and 
the seeming familiarity which we possess with their condition 
and operations. They do not appeal to us from the distant 
shores of ancient heathenism, and it may be on this account 
that they exert less influence both upon our imagination and our 
sympathies. But this want of interest must also be ascribed to 
the peculiar barbarism of the Indians and their hopeless des- 
tiny as a people. That they are capable of civilization and 
conversion to Christianity is abundantly proved by the facts of 
their history, as well as by their participation in our common 
humanity ; but though blessed with religion and civilization they 
can never have a place among the nations of the earth. The 
future opens before them no prospect of advancement — no 
hopes of ultimate greatness and power. It reveals to them only 
a descending pathway of decline and diminution, terminating 
at last in their utter extinction as a race. This is indeed a 
melancholy doom for a once mighty people, and it spreads its 
sombre shadow even over the labors of the Christian missionary 
for their instruction and improvement. 

But even with these hopeless prospects as a people the claim 
they have upon the sympathies and the philanthropy of Ameri- 



CLAIMS OF THE INDIAN RACE. 343 

can Christians is, if possible, stronger than that of any other 
portion of mankind. It is for us that their heritage has been 
despoiled and they have been scattered and wasted, and it is 
to us that Providence has assigned the broad domain which 
they lately held by the undisputed possession of centuries. We 
are daily treading amid the graves of their dead, and are occupy- 
ing the ancient homes where they once dwelt in barbarian 
pride and power. Every wave of our population that rolls 
westward must diminish their territory and hasten their extinc- 
tion. In their civil relations to the American people they have 
been styled the adopted children of the republic; they are 
under its protection and within its guardian care. Their con- 
dition on this account the more earnestly invites the ceaseless 
endeavors of Christian philanthropy to raise them from degra- 
dation and reclaim them from barbarism, and to pour into their 
darkened natures the light of that gospel which has made our 
national condition and prospects so different from theirs. 



In the foregoing chapters we have narrated the leading facts 
pertaining to the commencement and progress of the several for- 
eign missions of a society which is connected with a large Chris- 
tian denomination, and which has long maintained an honora- 
ble rank among the philanthropic institutions of the country. 
The narrative embraces plans and operations which have been 
carried on in many different lands and among different races of 
men, and at its close we may properly linger for a moment upon 
the features by which they are marked and the results which 
they have accomplished. 

These missions, like the contemporary missions of other re- 
ligious societies, sprang from the spirit of Christian philanthro- 
py which found its earliest expression in this country, near the 



344 CONCLUSION. 

beginning of the present century, in the pious resolutions and 
vows of a few young men at that time students in the Seminary 
at Andover. Commencing in the humblest manner, with but 
few to furnish them support or even to lend them countenance, 
they have gone steadily forward in the sacred work of propa- 
gating the gospel. They have extended from country to coun- 
try, and from continent to continent, until they are now engaged 
in promulgating the doctrines of the Bible in the languages of 
eighteen different portions of the human race. They thus con- 
stitute an interesting and important part of that beneficent enter- 
prise which is at length awakening the interest and enlisting 
the energies of nearly every portion of the Christian church, 
and which more than any other enterprise of the age is identified 
with the spiritual progress and elevation of man. 

Though scattered in countries widely separated from each 
other, these missions have one single design and every where 
present one uniform characteristic. They are established for 
the simple propagation of the gospel of Christ. With this ob- 
ject alone in view their founders and agents have gone forth 
proclaiming the doctrines of the Cross in the countries which 
they have entered, and they have refrained from every under- 
taking which was not connected with this single errand. The 
introduction of science or of art, the instruction of the young, and 
even the translation of the Scriptures, important as these may 
well be deemed, have all been made subsidiary to what they 
have been instructed to regard as the higher work of preaching 
to the people. The missionaries have generally been men of 
intellectual discipline and culture; but the characteristic by 
which they may be most properly distinguished is that they 
were devoted to the work which was set before them, — the work 
which the Saviour of men early committed to his chosen disci- 
ples to be prosecuted even to the end of the world. They have 
penetrated countries sunk in the lowest barbarism or overshad- 
owed with the hoary heathenism of a thousand years; they 
have gone to nations enslaved by spiritual despotism, and grop- 
ing in the fading twilight of a corrupted faith ; but their errand 



SUCCESS OF THE MISSIONS. 345 

has been always the same. They have not courted the favor of 
princes or the sanction of prelates ; they have intrigued neither 
with politicians nor ecclesiastics; but have seated themselves 
among the people, and there begun to preach to all who w r ould 
hear. As teachers of religion they have asserted the supremacy 
of the conscience, and have neither established for themselves 
nor recognized in others any authority over the inherent free- 
dom of the human soul. When driven from one city or coun- 
try they have gone to another ; and though called before magis- 
trates, incarcerated in dungeons and threatened with ignomini- 
ous death, they have trusted in the protection of Heaven, and 
have still worked on in their holy enterprise of mercy and love. 

Missionary labors thus conducted, however misapprehended 
and derided they may sometimes be, cannot fail to command 
the respect even if they do not secure the cooperation of all 
intelligent and right-minded people. The spirit which they 
embody is precisely the spirit which History and song have 
most delighted to celebrate, and which in all ages awakens the 
admiration and sympathy of generous and magnanimous na- 
tures. By the spectacle which they have presented, this spirit 
has been diffused through the churches which have contributed 
to their support, and the piety of a multitude of hearts has been 
raised to a nobler standard and quickened to a more heroic zeal 
for the salvation of men. 

But the spirit in which these missions have been undertaken 
and thus far conducted does not constitute their only title to the 
respect and gratitude of the friends of the human race, or their 
only claim to the continued and most hearty cooperation of 
those on whom they depend for their pecuniary support and 
their progressive enlargement. They have accomplished results 
of the highest importance to the social and spiritual interests of 
mankind. The divine Head of the church has been with them 
according to his own gracious promise, and has been pleased to 
employ them as instruments for the extension of his kingdom 
in the world. They have thus been the means of bringing 
many thousands of the devotees of heathenism or of superstition 



346 CONCLUSION. 

to the knowledge and the worship of God, and of planting in 
many an idolatrous or unevangelized land pure churches of 
Christ, in which we may hope the doctrines and ordinances of 
the gospel will be cherished through centuries to come, and 
from which, as from centres of spiritual illumination, there shall 
be diffused over the surrounding* wastes the ever-increasing 
light of heavenly truth. 

The success they have attained has been different in different 
countries, but with scarcely an exception it has been propor- 
tioned to the directness of the efforts which have been made to 
press the truths of the gospel upon the attention of the people. 
Their history unites with that of the whole Christian church, as 
well as with the testimony of Scripture, in demonstrating that 
by the foolishness of preaching men are most effectually turned 
to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Other agencies have 
contributed their influence, but it is the preacher's proclamation - 
of the tidings of salvation which at all periods and in all countries 
has won for the religion of the Cross its most glorious and en- 
during triumphs. 

The character and efficiency of these missions, though mainly 
dependent on the wisdom and zeal of ^ those who conduct them 
in the countries in which they are planted, must also be affected 
in no small degree by the counsels and measures of their guar- 
dians and managers at home. It is only when these are per- 
vaded by generous Christian sympathy and concentrated upon 
the single end to be accomplished, that the labors of the mis- 
sionaries can be prosecuted with the highest energy and the 
best success. Upon topics like this the records of our mis- 
sionary Convention are replete with instruction. Every pain- 
ful vicissitude through which it has passed has been felt at the 
remotest station of its missions. Every period of pecuniary 
embarrassment, of divided counsels, or of unsettled plans, has 
imparted its own sombre spirit to the operations it is conduct- 
ing in the most distant lands. The agency of the Missionary 
Union, the association in which members of our communion 
over a large portion of the country are now united, is limited 



FACILITIES FOR MISSIONARY LABOR. 347 

by the terms of its constitution to the single object of " diffusing 
the knowledge of the religion of Jesus Christ by means of mis- 
sions throughout the world ; " and w T ith the recorded experience 
of the past all before us, we cannot but earnestly hope it will 
never again be extended to any other object however important 
or inviting. Rather may this Union, which had its origin 
amidst the happiest auspices, intrench itself more and more in 
the affections of its members and friends, and, becoming every 
year more and more identified with the interests and triumphs 
of our growing missions, remain unchanged, and be transmitted 
to other generations crowned with the richest blessings of 
Heaven upon all its deliberations and endeavors for the spir- 
itual welfare of mankind. 

The facilities amidst which the Union is now conducting the 
enterprise to which it is devoted are wholly unexampled in its 
history. The experience of its managers has become mature, 
and the confidence of its supporters is firmly settled ; and far 
beyond the immediate sphere of- its counsels and plans a most 
remarkable and favorable change has taken place in the con- 
dition of the world. The great events of the present century 
have been tributary to the advancement of Christian missions. 
The explorations of commerce in distant seas, the victories 
of European arms over the nations of the East, the intimate in- 
tercourse which is now established between the remotest lands, 
— all have opened new pathways for the missionary and removed 
innumerable obstacles which once opposed his progress. Nor 
is the change less remarkable or less favorable in the opinions 
and feelings with which this enterprise is regarded in civilized 
countries. Once it was derided and opposed, not merely by 
a hostile public sentiment at home, but by colonial officers and 
commercial agents in all parts of the world. But all this has 
passed away, and our missions are invited to countries from 
which they were lately driven by unfriendly governors, and 
are cherished and supported as invaluable agencies of civil- 
ization by the very officers who once denounced and drove 
them away as the troublesome inter meddlings of impotent en- 



348 CONCLUSION. 

thusiasts. It can now scarcely be said that a single portion of 
mankind is inaccessible to their heroic pioneers. The commerce 
of the English race now covers every sea and traffics on every 
shore, and wherever either the English or the American flag 
proclaims the presence of civilized power, there the missionary 
confident of protection, may prosecute his work unharmed. The 
unintelligible jargon of barbarian tribes has been reduced to the 
forms of written speech, and the confused languages which were 
once regarded as incapable of acquisition even by the most 
assiduous and protracted industry, are now fully mastered by 
the missionary and already contain the printed Scriptures and 
the rudiments of a religious literature for the people who speak 
them. 

With such aims still before them, and possessing these accu- 
mulated facilities for their prosecution and accomplishment, the 
missions whose brief and changeful history we have recited 
commend themselves to their supporters and friends as agencies 
which God has signally blessed in hastening the march of 
Christian civilization, and in establishing his own kingdom of 
righteousness and truth among the nations. They are identi- 
fied with the highest interests of man in the countries where 
they are established, and are the subjects of the fondest hopes, 
the daily prayers and the generous sacrifices of a multitude of 
Christian hearts in the churches of our own extended com- 
munion. The fields which they occupy are constantly widen- 
ing, and the claims which they prefer become stronger and 
more numerous with every succeeding year. May the counsels 
which direct them ever be blessed of Heaven, and the charities 
which support them be worthy of the sacred and sublime object 
they aim to accomplish, — the conversion of the world 

TO THE RELIGION OF THE SAVIOUR. 



APPENDIX. 



TABLE OF THE MISSIONS. 




31 



350 



APPENDIX. 



MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES OF THE UNION. 



Station. 


Missionary. 


el 

< 


Dept. of Labor. 


Remarks. 


Burmah. 












Maulniain. 


Adoniram Judson, 
Emily Chubbuck J. 


1814 

1846 


Burmese, 






cc 


Thomas Simons, 


1831 


cc 






a 


Hosea Howard, 


1832 


cc 






cc • 


Theresa Patten IE 


" 


cc 






CC 

cc 


Justus H. Yinton, 
Calista Ilolman V. 


M 


Sgau Karen, 


In U. S. 




a 


Sewall M. Osgood, 


1834 


Burmese, 


cc 




« 


S. M. Willsey 0. 


1836 


« 


cc 




cc 

cc 


Edward A. Stevens, 
Elizabeth L. Haven S. 


cc 

cc 


cc 






(C 


Lyman Sfcilson, 


cc 


cc 






cc 


Lucretia Brownson S. 


(C 


cc 






u 


Miss Miranda Vinton, 


1841 


Sgau Karen, 






CC 


Joseph G. Binney, 


1843 


" 






(C 


Juliet Pattison B. 


" 


cc 






cc 


Thomas S. Ranney, 
R 


cc 

1844 


Burmese, 
Sgau Karen, 


Printer. 




Norman Harris, 


cc 


0. 0. Wadsworth H. 


" 


cc 






a 


Miss Lydia Lilly bridge, 


1846 


Burmese, 






cc 


William Moore, 


1847 


Pwo Karen, 






cc 


Elizabeth W. Forbes M. 


" 


" 






Amherst. 


James M. Haswell, 
Jane M. Mason H. 


1835 


Peguan, 


Returning to U. 
cc cc 


S. 


Tavoy. 


Jonathan Wade, 
Deborah B. Lapham W. 


1823 


Sgau Karen, 


In U. S. 

cc 




cc 


Cephas Bennett, 


1S28 


cc 


Printer. 




cc 


Stella Kneeland B. 


cc 


cc 






« 


Francis Mason. 


1829 


cc 






cc 


Ellen H Bullard M. 


1843 


(C 






cc 


Edmund B. Cross, 


1842 


cc 






cc 
cc 


Julia Ann Putnam C. 
Judson Beujamin, 
Susan R. Stone B. 


1848 

cc 


cc 
cc 






Mergui, 


Durlin L. Brayton, 
Mary II. Fuller B. 


1837 


Pwo Karen, 


In U. S. 




Akyab, 

cc 


Lovell Ingalls, 
Calvin C. Moore, 


1835 

1848 


Burmese, 








Laura C Irish M. 


" 






Sandoway, 


Elisha L. Abbott, 


1835 Sgau Karen, 






» 


John S. Beeeher, 


1846 


cc 






» 


Martha Foote B. 


" 


« 




^ 


cc 


Henry L. Van Meter, 


1848 


cc 






cc 


Louisa Hooker V, M 


v> 


re 






SUM. 












Bangkok, 


John T. Jones, 
Sarah Sleeper J. 


1829 
1847 


Siamese, 






" 


John H. Chandler. 


1840 


" 


Machinist. 




cc 


Helen Mar Crossman C. 


» 


a 






cc 


Miss Harriet H. Morse, 


1847 


cc 






cc 


Samuel J. Smith, 


1848 


cc 






China. 












Hongkong, 


William Dean, 
John Johnson, 


1832 

1S4'> 


Tiechiu Dialect, 






Ningpo, 

cc 


Josiah Goddard, 
Eliza Ann Abbott G. 


1838 


cc cc 

CC i'C 






cc 


Daniel J. Macgowan, 


1841 


Ningpo, " 


Physician. 




cc 


Mary Ann Osborne M. 


1845 


cc cc 






cc 


Edward C. Lord, 


1846 


cc cc 






cc 


Lucy T. Lyon L. 


cc 


cc cc 






Assam. 












Sibsagar, 


Nathan Brown, 


1831 


Assamese, 







APPENDIX. 
MISSIONS AND MISSIONARIES OF THE UNION. 



551 







-d 








Station 


Missionary. 


< 


Dept. of Labor. 


Remarks. 




Absam. 












Sibsagar, 


Eliza W. Builard B. 
Oliver T. Cutter, 


1831 


Assamese, 


Printer. 




u 


Harriet B. Low C. 


si 


u 


Returning to U. 


S. 


Xowgong, 


Miles Bronson, 


1838 


a 


R a 




'• 


Ruth M. Lucas B. 




a 


it u 




u 


Ira J. Stoddard, 


1847 


a 






« 


Drusilla 0. Allen S. 


' ; 


a 






Gowahatti, 


Cyrus Barker, 
Jane Weston B. 


1839 


a 
u 






a 


Appleton II. Danforth, 


1847 


it 






u 


Frances A. Studley D. 


" 


a 






Hl.XDOSTAN. 












Xeilore, 


Samuel S. Day, 


1835 TeIoo<?< 








Rowena Clark D. 


" 


" 


In U. S. 






Stephen Yan Husen, 


1838 


u 


u 






Joanna Brown Y. H. 


-• 


" 


(( 






Lyman Jewett, 


1848 


u 








Euphernia Davis J. 


" 


a 






AYest Africa. 












Bexley, 


Lois G. Clarke, 


1837 


Bassa, 


In U. S. 






Mary B. C. Crocker. 


1813 


a 


a 




France. 












Douay, 


Erastus Willard, 
Caroline Morse W. 


1834 
1846 








Paris, 


Thomas T. Devan, 
Emma E. Clark D. 


1844 
1848 








Germany. 












Hamburg, 


J. G. Oncken, 


1835 








Berlin, 


G. W. Lehmann, 


1841 








Greece. 












Corfu, 


Mrs. Harriet E. Dickson, 
Albert X. Arnold, 
Sarah Allin A. 


1859 
1843 








Piraeus, 


Rufus F. Buel, 
Mary J Raymond B. 


1840 








IXDIAX TERRITORY 












Cherokee, 


Evan Jones, 


1821 Cherokee, 








L unnin £t nam J, 
Wiilard P Upham, 


1843; « 






u 


E. 0. Xewhali U. 


u | u 






u 


Hervey Upham, 
R E. Warren U. 


::| :; 


Printer 




Ottawa, 


Jotham Meeker, 

E. D. Richardson M. 

Miss Jane Kelly Jones, 


1827 Ottawa, 
18301 " 
1843i " 






Delaware, 


John G. Pratt, 
Olivia Evans P. 
Miss Elizabeth S. Morse, 


1837 Delaware, 
1847; ' c 






Shawanoe, 


Francis Barker, 


1> 3 1-* Shawanoe, 








E. F. Churchill B. 


" 


" 






MlCIITGAX. 












Richland, 


Leonard Slater, 
Mary A. S. 


1826 


Ottawa, 






St. Mary's, 


Abel Bingham, 
Hannah Brown B. 


1828 


Ojibwa, 
u 






Tiquamina, 


J. D. Cameron, 


1832 


u 






New, York. 












Tonawanda, 


Augustus T\'arren, 
TV. 




Tuscarora, 


Under care of X 
Convention. 


Y.| 

i 



352 



APPENDIX. 






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APPENDIX. 



353 



•3 
ft 


Jaipur, Dec. 8, 1840. 
Edina, Jan. 3, 1841. 
Edina, Jan. 16, 1841. 
Bangkok, April 7, 1841. 
London, July 3, 1841. 
Hongkong, March 29, 1843. 
Ramree, April 28, 1843. 
Maulmain, May 1, 1843. 
Monrovia, Feb. 26, 1844. 
Akyab, April 25, 1844. 
Douay, Oct. 9, 1844. 
Hongkong, Nov. 27, 1844. 
Sandowav, Jan. 27, 1845. 
Near St. Helena, Sept. 1, 1845. 
Maulmain, Nov. 9, 1845. 
At sea, March 21, 1846. 
Tavoy, Oct. 8, 1846. 
Canton, Oct. 18, 1846. 
Maulmain, April 5, 1847. 
At sea, April 24, 1848. 
Hongkong, June 9, 1848. 
At sea, June 27, 1848. 


1 

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Passyunk, Pa., 1805, 
Nottingham, Eng., 1814, 
Norwich, Vt., 1811, 
Cambridge, Ms., 
Thetford, Eng., 1819, 
Brookline, Ms., 1812, 
Brookfield, Ms., 1811, 
Newburyport, Ms., 1805, 
Ulysses, N. Y., 1809, 
Rockingham, Vt., 1800, 
Kilmarnock, Va., 1817, 
New York, 1809, 
Alstead, N. H., 1803, 
Cummington, Ms., 1814, 
Meredith, N. H., 1815, 
Brookline, Ms., 1806, 
Boston, Ms. 1818, 
Shrewsbury, Vt., 1813, 
Lebanon, Me., 1807, 

New Milford, Ct., 1820. 


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Mrs. T. A. Barker Dean, 

Mrs. Sarah Davis Comstock, 

Mrs. Caroline J. H. Simons, 

William G. Crocker, 

Grover S. Comstock, 

Mrs. Sarah Clark Willard, 

Mrs. Henrietta Hall Shuck, 

Mrs. Ann P. Gardner Abbott, 

Mrs. Sarah Boardman Judson, 

Mrs. Maria Dawes Ingalls, 

Mrs J- Leavitt Jones, 

Mrs. Helen M. Griggs Mason, 

Mrs. Lydia Hale Devan, 

Edwin B. Billiard, 

Ivory Clarke, 

Mrs. Anna A. S. Johnson, 

Mrs. Caroline Baldwm Jencks, 



31* 



354 



APPENDIX. 



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APPENDIX. 357 



CONSTITUTION OF THE MISSIONARY UNION. 



OF THE UXIOX. 



1. This Association shall be styled The American Baptist Missionary 
Ukiox. 

2. The single object of this Union shall be to diffuse the knowledge of the 
religion of Jesus Christ, by means of missions, throughout the world. 

3. This Union shall be composed of Life Members. All the members of 
the Baptist General Convention who may be present at the adoption of this 
Constitution, shall be members for life of the Union. Other persons may be 
constituted Life Members by the payment, at one time, of not less than one 
hundred dollars. 

4. The Union shall meet annually on the third Thursday of May, or at 
such other time, and at such place, as it may appoint. At every such annual 
meeting the Union shall elect by ballot a President, two Vice Presidents, a 
Recording Secretary, and one third of a Board of Managers. 

At a meeting to be held immediately after the adoption of this Constitution, 
the Union shall elect an entire Board of Managers, consisting of seventy-five 
persons, at least one third of whom shall not be ministers of the gospel. Said 
Board shall be elected in three equal classes, the first to go out of office at 
the first annual meeting: and thus, in regular succession, one third of the 
Board shall go out of office at each annual meeting, and their places shall be 
supplied by a new election. In every case the members whose term of ser- 
vice shall thus expire, shall be re-eligible. 

5. The President, or in his absence one of the Vice Presidents, shall preside 
in all meetings of the Union. 

6. All the officers of the Union and its Board of Managers shall continue to 
discharge the duties assigned to them respectively, until superseded by a new 
election. 

7. Special meetings of the Union shall be called by the President, or in 
case of his death or absence from the country, by either of the Vice Presidents, 
upon application from the Board of Managers. 



OF THE BOARD OF MANAGERS. 

8. All members of the Union may attend the meetings of the Board of 
Managers, and deliberate on all questions, but members of the Board only, 
shall vote. 

9. Immediately after the annual meeting of the Union, the Board of Mana- 
gers shall meet and elect by ballot a Chairman ; a Eecording Secretary; an 
Executive Committee of nine, not more than five of whom shall be ministers 
of the gospel; as many Corresponding Secretaries as they may judge to be 
necessary ; a Treasurer ; and an Auditing Committee of two, who shall not 
be ministers of the gospel. At this meeting the Board shall determine the 
salaries of the Corresponding Secretaries and Treasurer, and give such in- 
structions to the Executive Committee as may be necessary, to regulate their 
plans of action for the ensuing year. The Board shall also have power, when- 
ever they think it necessary, to appoint an Assistant Treasurer, and to specify 
his duties and fix his compensation. 

10. The Board shall meet annually at such place as may have been ap- 
pointed for the annual meeting of the Union, at least two days previous to 
such meeting, to hear the reports of the Executive Committee, the Treasurer, 



358 APPENDIX. 



and the Auditing Committee, and to review with care the proceedings of the 
past year, the result of which shall be submitted to the Union. 

11. Special meetings of the Board may be called by the Executive Com- 
mittee, whenever, in their judgment, occasion may require. A printed notice 
of the time, place, and object or objects of such meetings, shall be sent, at 
least six weeks in anticipation, to every member of the Board. 

12. All officers appointed by the Board shall continue to discharge the du- 
ties assigned to them respectively, until superseded by a new election. At 
all meetings of the Board fifteen shall be a quorum for business. 



OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE. 

13. The Executive Committee shall hold its meetings at such times and 
places as they may appoint. A majority of the whole number shall be a quo- 
rum for business. " The Corresponding Secretaries and Treasurer shall not be 
members of the Committee, but they shall attend its meetings, and commu- 
nicate any information in their possession pertaining to their respective de- 
partments, and aid the Committee in its deliberations. The Committee shall 
have power to appoint its own Chairman and Recording Secretary, and to fill 
any vacancy that may occur in their own number. 

14. It shall be the duty of the Executive Committee to caiTy into effect 
all the orders of the Board of Managers ; to designate, by advice of the Board, 
the places where missions shall be attempted, and to establish and superin- 
tend the same ; to appoint, instruct, and direct all the missionaries of the 
Board, and to fix their compensation ; to direct the Corresponding Secreta- 
ries and Treasurer in the discharge of their duties ; to make all appropriations 
to be paid out of the Treasury ; to appoint agents for the collection of funds, 
and to prescribe their duties and arrange their compensation ; and in general 
to perform all duties necessary to promote the object of the Union, provided 
the same be not contrary to this Constitution or the instructions of the Board 
of Managers. 

15. The Executive Committee shall present to the Board of Managers, at 
its annual meeting, a report containing a full account of their doings during 
the preceding year ; of the condition and prospects of every missionary sta- 
tion ; of their plans for the enlargement or contraction of their sphere of oper- 
ations ; and in general giving all such information as will enable the Board to 
decide correctly respecting the various subjects on which it is their duty, as 
the agents of the Union, to form or express an opinion. 

16. The Executive Committee shall have power, by a vote of two thirds of 
the whole number, to remove, for sufficient cause, any Corresponding Secre- 
tary, Treasurer, Auditing Committee, or Missionary, and to appoint others in 
their places ; being always responsible for such exercise of their power to the 
Board of Managers. 

17. In case of the death or resignation of a Corresponding Secretary, 
Treasurer, or member of the Auditing Committee, the Executive Committee 
shall have power to supply the vacancy until the next meeting of the Board 
of Managers. 



OF THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARIES. 

18. The Corresponding Secretaries shall conduct the correspondence of 
the Board and of the Executive Committee, excepting such as shall relate to 
the Treasurer's department, and perform such other duties as the Board or 
the Executive Committee may from time to time require They shall pre- 
serve copies of all their official correspondence, which shall at all times be 
accessible to any member of the Board or of the Executive Committee. 



APPENDIX. 359 



OF THE TREASURER. 

19. It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to take charge of all moneys and 
other property contributed to the Treasury of the Union, and to give receipts 
therefor ; to keep safely all the moneys and funds of the Union, and all their 
evidences of property; to keep fair and accurate accounts of all moneys re- 
ceived and expended ; to invest and deposit moneys, and make payments 
and remittances according to the directions of the Executive Committee ; to 
exhibit his books, accounts, vouchers, and evidences of property, whenever 
required, to the Board or to the Executive and Auditing Committees; to make 
out an annual statement of receipts and payments, and of the condition of the 
permanent funds and other property, for the information of the Board of Man- 
agers ; and to perform such other acts as maybe necessary to the faithful 
discharge of the duties of his office. 



OF THE AUDITING COMMITTEE. 

20. The Auditing Committee shall not be members of the Executive Com- 
mittee, but shall at any time, when requested, attend its meetings to give in- 
formation respecting the state of the Treasury. It shall be their duty once 
a month to examine the books of the Treasurer, particularly and thoroughly, 
with all the vouchers and evidences of property thereto belonging. A cer- 
tificate of the result of this examination shall be entered upon the books of 
the Treasurer, and a copy furnished to the Executive Committee, to be en- 
tered upon their records. They shall also examine the annual statement of 
the Treasurer, and give a written certificate of the result to be entered upon 
the records of the Board of Managers. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 

21. The President, Vice Presidents, and Recording Secretary of the Union, 
the members of the Board of Managers, the Executive Committee, the Cor- 
responding Secretaries, the Treasurer, the Auditing Committee, and all 
missionaries employed by the Executive Committee, shall be members in 
good standing of regular Baptist churches. 

22. All moneys contributed to the Treasury of the Union shall be expend- 
ed at the discretion of the Executive Committee, except such as may be ap- 
propriated by the Board of Managers for the salaries of the Corresponding 
Secretaries and Treasurer ; but moneys or other property given for specified 
objects shall be appropriated according to the will of the donors, provided 
such an application shall not be contrary to the provisions of this Constitu- 
tion, or to the instructions of the Board of Managers, in which case they shall 
be returned to the donors or their lawful agents. 

23. The Union, the Board of Managers, and the Executive Committee, 
shall each have power to adopt such By-Laws or Rules of Order as may be 
necessary for the government of their own proceedings, provided always 
that no such regulations shall contravene any part or principle of this Con- 
stitution. 

24. Alterations may be made in this Constitution only upon recommen- 
dation by the Board 6f Managers, and at an annual meeting of the Union, 
by a vote of two thirds of the members present. 

END. 



WORKS ON MISSIONS. 



The Publishers invite attention to the following valuable works, to which 
reference is frequently made in the preceding history. They will be found 
interesting to all who desire to become fully acquainted with the toils, suf- 
ferings, and successes of the heralds of salvation. A full description of 
them will be found in the annexed advertisement. 



MEMOIR OF ANN H. JUDSON, 
By J. D. Knowles. With a Portrait. 18mo., Cloth. Price 58 cents. 

MEMOIR OF GEORGE DANA BOARD MAN, 

With Portrait and Vignette. 12mo., Cloth. Price 75 cents. 

MEMOIR OF HENRIETTA SHUCK, 
By Rev. J. B. Jeter. With Portrait. 18mo., Cloth. Price 50 cents. 

MEMOIR OF WILLIAM G. CROCKER, 
By R. B. Medbery. With a Portrait. J8mo. } Cloth. Price 62£ cents. 

MEMOIR OF KO THAH-BYU, 

The Karen Apostle. By Rev. F. Mason. 18mo., Cloth. Price 25 cents. 

THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE. 

Discourses on Missions by American Authors. Edited by Baron Stow. V2mo. 
Price 85 cents. 

THE GREAT COMMISSION. 
By John Harris, D. D. Sixth thousand. l2mo., Cloth. Price 1.00. 



CATALOGUE 

OF VALUABLE WORKS, PUBLISHED BY 

GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN, 

No. 59 Washington Steeet, 
BOSTON. 



The attention of the public is invited to an examination of the merits of the works 
described in this Catalogue, embracing valuable contributions to General Literature, 
Science, and Theology. 

Besides their own Publications, they have a general assortment of Books, in the 
various departments of Literature, and can supply every thing in their line of business 
on the lowest terms, wholesale and retail. 



PRINCIPLES OP ZOOLOGY; Touching the Structure, Develop- 
ment, Distribution, and Natural Arrangement of the Races of Animals, 
living and extinct, with numerous illustrations. For the use of Schools 
and Colleges. Part I., Comparative Physiology. By Louis Agassiz 
and Augustus A. Gould. 

Extracts from the Preface. 

" The design of this work is to furnish an epitome of the leading principles of the science 
of Zoology, as deduced from the present state of knowledge, so illustrated as to be intelligible 
to the beginning student. No similar treatise now exists in this country, and indeed, some 
of the topics have not been touched upon in the language, unless in a strictly technical 
form, and in scattered articles." 

" Being designed for American students, the illustrations have been drawn, as far as pos- 
sible, from American objects. * * * Popular names have been employed as far as possible, 
and to the scientific names an English termination has generally been given. The first part 
is devoted to Comparative Physiology, as the basis of Classification ; the second, to System- 
atic Zoology, in which the principles of Classification will be applied, and the principal 
groups of animals briefly characterized." 

MODERN FRENCH LITERATURE; By L. Raymond De Veri- 

cour, formerly lecturer in the Royal Athenaeum of Paris, member of the 
Institute of France, &c. American edition, brought bown to the present 
day, and revised with notes by William S. Chase. With a fine portrait 
of Lamartine. 

*** This Treatise has received the highest praise as a comprehensive and thorough survey 
of the various departments of Modern French Literature. It contains biographical and 
critical notes of all the prominent names in Philosophy, Criticism, History, Romance, 
Poetry, and the Drama ; and presents a full and impartial consideration of the Political 
Tendencies of France, as they may be traced in the writings of authors equally conspicu- 
ous as Scholars and as Statesmen. Mr. Chase, who has been the Parisian correspondent of 
Beveral leading periodicals of this country, is well qualified, from a prolonged residence in 
France, his familiarity with its Literature, and by a personal acquaintance with many of 
these authors, to introduce the work of De Yericour to the American public. 

" This is the only complete treatise of the kind on this subject, either in French or Eng- 
lish, and has received the highest commendation. Mr. Chase is well qualified to introduce 
the work to the public. The book cannot fail to be both useful and popular." — New York 
Evening Post. 

"Literature and Politics are more closely allied than many are aware of. It is particu- 
larly so in France ; and the work announced by this learned French writer will, doubtless, 
be eagerly sought after."— The Symbol, Boston. 

" Mr. Chase is entirely competent for the task he has undertaken in the present instance 
Ilis introduction and notes have doubtless added much to the value of the work, especially 
to the American reader." — Evening Gazette, Boston* 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

MEMOIR OF ANN H. JUDSON, late Missionary to Burmah. By Rev. 

James D. Knowles. 12mo. Edition, price 85 cents. ISmo., price 58 cts. 

" We are particularly gratified to perceive a new edition of the Memoirs of Mrs. Judson. 
She was an honor to our country — one of the most noble-spirited of her sex. It cannot, 
therefore, be surprising, that so many editions, and so many thousand copies of her life and 
adventures have been sold. The name — the long career of suffering — the self-sacrificing 
spirit of the retired country-girl, have spread over the whole world ; and the heroism of her 
apostleship and almost martyrdom, stands out a living and heavenly beacon-fire, amid the 
dark midnight of ages, and human history and exploits. She was the first woman who 
resolved to become a missionary to heathen countries." — American Traveller. 

" This is one of the most interesting pieces of female biography which has ever come un- 
der our notice. No quotation, which our limits allow, would do justice to the facts, and we 
must, therefore, refer our readers to the volume itself. It ought to be immediately added to 
every family library." — London Miscellany. 

MEMOIR OF GEORGE DAMA BOARDMAN, Late Missionary to 
Burmah, containing much intelligence relative to the Burman Mission. 
By Rev. Alonzo King. A new Edition. With an Introductory Essay, 
by a distinguished Clergyman. Embellished with a Likeness; a 
beautiful Vignette, representing the baptismal scene just before his 
death ; and a drawing of his tomb, taken by Rev. H. Malcom, D.D. 
Price 75 cents. 

" One of the brightest luminaries of Burmah is extinguished, — dear brother Boardman 
is gone to his eternal rest. He fell gloriously at the head of his troops — in the arms of vic- 
tory, — thirty-eight wild Karens having been brought into the camp of king Jesus since the 
beginning of the year, besides the thirty -two that were brought in during the two preceding ' 
years. Disabled by wounds, he was obliged, through the whole of the last expedition, to be 
carried on a litter ; but his presence was a host, and the Holy Spirit accompanied his 
dying whispers with almighty influence." Rev. Dr. Judsojn*. 

"No one can read the Memoir of Boardman, without feeling that the religion of Christ is 
Buited to purify the affections, exalt the purposes, and give energy to the character. Mr. 
Boardman was a man of rare excellence, and his biographer, by a just exhibition of that 
excellence, has rendered an important service, not only to the cause of Christian missions, 
but to the interests of personal godliness." Baron Stow. 

MEMOIR OF MRS. HENRIETTA SHUOSC, The First American 
Female Missionary to China. By Kev, J. B. Jeter. Fourth thousand. 
Price 50 cents. 

" "We have seldom taken into our hands a more beautiful book than this, and we have 
no small pleasure in knowing the degree of perfection attained in this country in the arts 
of printing and book-binding, as seen in its appearance. The style of the author is sedat8 
and perspicuous, such as we might expect from his known piety and learning, his attach- 
ment to missions, and the amiable lady whose memory he embalms. The book will be ex- 
tensively read and eminently useful, and thus the ends sought by the author will be hap- 
pily secured. We think we are not mistaken in this opinion ; for those who taste the 
effect of early education upon the expansion of regenerated convictions of duty and happi- 
ness, who are charmed with youthful, heroic self-consecration upon the altar of God, for the 
welfare of man, and who are interested in those struggles of mind which lead men to shut 
their eyes and ears to the importunate pleadings of filial affection —those who are interested 
in China, that large opening field for the glorious conquests of divine truth, who are inter- 
ested in the government and habits, social and business-like, of the people of this empire — 
all such will be interested in this Memoir. To them and to the friends of missions generally, 
the book is commended, as worthy of an attentive perusal." — The Family Visiter, Boston. 

MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM G. O ROCKER, Late Missionary in 
West Africa, among the Bassas, Including a History of the Mission. By 
R. B. Medbery-. Price 62£ cents. 

" This interesting work will be found to contain much valuable information in relation to 
the present state and prospects of Africa, and the success of Missions in that interesting 
country, which has just taken a stand among the nations of the earth, and, it is to be hoped, 
may successfully wield its new powers for the ultimate good of the whole continent. The 
present work is commended to the attention of every lover of the liberties of man. 

" Our acquaintance with the excellent brother, who is the subject of this Memoir, will be 
long and fondly cherished. This volume, prepared by a lady, of true taste and talent, and 
of a kindred spirit, while it is but a just tribute to h'is worth, will, we doubt not, furnish 
lessons of humble and practical piety, and will give such facts relative to the mission to 
which he devoted his life, as to render it worthy a distinguished place among the religious 
and missionary biography which has so much enriched the family of God."— Ch. Watchman. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

JtUwK* on JiltsMon*, 



THE MISSIONARY ENTERPRISE; A Collection of Discourses 
on Christian Missions, by American Authors. Edited by Baron 
Stow, D.D. Second Thousand. Price 85 cents. 

u If we desired to put into the hands of a foreigner a fair exhibition of the capacity and 
spirit of the American church, we would give him this volume. You have here thrown 
together a few discourses, preached from time to time, by different individuals, of different 
denominations, as circumstances have demanded them ; and you see the stature and feel 
the pulse of the American Church in these discourses with a certainty not to be mistaken. 

" You see the high talent of the American church. We venture the assertion, that no 
nation in the world ha? such an amount of forceful, available talent in its pulpit. The 
eiiergy, directness, scope, and intellectual spirit of the American church is wonderful. In 
this book, the discourses by Dr. Beecher, Pres. Wayland, and the Rev. Dr. Stone of the 
Episcopal church, are among the very highest exhibitions of logical correctness, and burn- 
ing, popular fervor. This volume will have a wide circulation." — The Mew Englander. 

" This work contains fifteen sermons on Missions, by Rev. Drs. Wayland, Griffin, Ander- 
son, Williams, Beecher, Miller, Fuller. Beman, Stone, Mason, and by Rev. Messrs. Kirk, 
Stow, and Ide. It is a rich treasure, which ought to be in the possession of every American 
Christian." — Carolina Baptist. 

THE GREAT COMMISSION ; Or, the Christian Church constituted 
and charged to convey the Gospel to the World. A Prize Essay. By 
John Harris, D.D. With an Introductory Essay, by W. R. Williams, 
D.D. Fifth Thousand. Price $1.00. 

" His plan is original and comprehensive. In filling it up the author has interwoven 
facts withrich and glowing illustrations, and with trains of thought that are sometimes 
almost resistless in their appeals to the conscience. The work is not more distinguished 
for its arguments and its genius, than for the spirit of deep and fervent piety that per- 
vades it." — The Dayspring. 

" This work comes forth in circumstances which give and promise extraordinary interest 
and value. Its general circulation will do much good." — Xew York Evangelist. 

"In this volume we have a work of great excellence, rich in thought and illustration of a 
subject to which the attention of thousands has been called by the word and providence of 
God." — Philadelphia Observer. 

" The merits of the book entitle it to more than a prize of money. It constitutes a most 
powerful appeal on the subject of Missions." — New Fork Baptist Advocate. 

" Its style is remarkably chaste and elegant. Its sentiments richly and fervently evan- 
gelized, its argumentation conclusive. Preachers especially should read it; they will re- 
new their strength over its noble pages." — Zion's Herald, Boston. 

" To recommend this work to the friends of missions of all denominations would be but 
faint praise; the author deserves and will undoubtedly receive the credit of having applied 
a new lever to that great moral machine which, by the blessing of God, is destined to 
evangelize the world." — Christian Secretary, Hartford. 

" We hope that the volume will be attentively and prayerfully read by the whole 
church, which are clothed with the " Great Commission " to evangelize the world, and 
that they will be moved to an immediate discharge of its high and momentous obligations. 

N. E. Puritan, Boston, 

THE KAREN APOSTLE; Or, Memoir of Ko Thah-Byu, the first 

Karen convert, with notices concerning his Nation. With maps and 
plates. By the Rev. Francis Mason, Missionary. American Edition. 
Edited by Prof. H. J. Ripley, of Newton Theol. Institution. Fifth Thou- 
sand. Price 25 cents. 

*** " This is a work of thrilling interest, containing the history of a remarkable man, and 
giving, also, much information respecting the Karen Mission, heretofore unknown in this 
country. It must be sought for, and read with avidity by those interested in this most in- 
teresting mission. It gives an account, which must be attractive, from its novelty, of a 
people that have been but little known and visited by missionaries, till within a few years* 
The baptism of Ko Thah-Byu, in 1828, was the beginning of the mission, and at the end of 
these twelve years, twelve hundred and seventy Karens are officially reported as members 
of the churches, in good standing. The mission has been carried on pre-eminently by the 
Karens themselves, and there is no doubt, from much touching evidence contained in this 
volume, that they are a people peculiarly susceptible to religious impressions. The account 
of Mr. Mason must be interesting to every one. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN S PUBLICATIONS. 



fijgnw Boofe, 



THE PSALMIST". A New Collection of Hymns, for the use of the 
Baptist Churches. By Baron Stow and S. F. Smith. 

Assisted by W. K. Williams, Geo. B. lde, K. W. Griswold, S. P. Hill, 
J. B. Taylor, J. L. Dagg, W. X. Brantly, K. B. C. Howell, Samuel W. 
Lynd and John M. Peck. 

Pulpit edition, 12 mo., sheep, Price 1.25. Pew edition, 18mo., 75 cts. 
Pocket edition, 32mo., 56> 4 ' ets. — All the different sizes supplied in 
extra styles of binding at corresponding prices. 

*** This work it may be said, has become xhk book of the Baptist denomination, having 
been introduced extensively into every State in the Union, and the British provinces. As 
a collection of hymns it stands unrivalled. 

The united testimony of pastors of the Baptist churches in Boston and vicinity, in New 
York, and in Philadelphia, of the most decided and flattering character, has been given in 
favor of the book. Also, by the Professors in Hamilton Literary and Theological Institution, 
and the Newton Theological Institution. The same, also, has been done by a great number 
of clergymen, churches, Associations, and Conventions, in every State of the Union. 

The following notice, from the Miami Association, of Ohio, is but a specimen of a host 
of others, received by the publishers : 

M Your Committee recommend to the attention of the ChuTches, the new work called 
• The Psalmist,' as worthy of special patronage. 1. It is exceedingly desirable that our 
whole denomination should use in the praises of the sanctuary the same psalms, hymns, and 
spiritual songs. To secure uniformity, we prefer ' The Psalmist,' because it is strictly, and 
from the foundation, designed for the use of Baptist churches, — is not surpassed by any 
Hymn Book in the world. 2. It has been prepared with the greatest care. In no instance has 
a Hymn Book gone through so thorough a revision. 3, It is a book of very superior merits. 
The Committee therefore recommend to the churches the adoption of this work as well 
calculated to elevate the taste and the devotion of the denomination." 

THE PSALMIST, WiTH A S UPPLEM EN T, by Richard Fuller, 

of Baltimore, and J. B. Jeter, of Richmond. (Prices same as above.) 

* s /'This work contains nearly thirteen hundred hymns, original and selected, by 172 
writex-s, besides pieces credited to nfty-five~ collections of hymns or other works, the author- 
ship of which is unknown. Porty-five are anonymous, being traced neither to authors nor 
collections. 

The Supplement, occupying the place of the Chants., which in many sections of the 
country are seldom used, was undertaken by Eev. Messrs. Puller and Jeter, at the solicita- 
tion of friends at the South. 

" The Psalmist contains a copious supply of excellent hymns for the pulpit. We are 
acquainted with no collection of hymns combining, in an equal degree, poetic merit, evangeli- 
cal sentiment, and a rich variety of subjects, with a happy adaptation to pulpit services. 
Old songs, like old friends, are more valuable than new ones. A number of the hymns besi 
known, most valued, and most frequently sung in the South, are not found in the Psalmist. 
"Without them, no hymn book, whatever may be its excellences, is likely to become gener- 
ally or permanently popular in that region." — Preface. 

COMPANION FOR THE PSALMIST. Containing Original Mu«ic. 
Arranged for hymns in ' The Psalmist,' of peculiar character and metre. 
By N. D. Gould. Price 12X cents. 

*** This work is designed, and the music has been written, expressly to meet the wants 
of those who use ' The Psalmist ' It is adapted to the numerous beautiful hymns of peculiar 
metre, which are embraced in that collection, a few of which are to be found in other hymn 
books, and to none of which have any tunes been hitherto adapted. They are simple, and 
suitable for either private, social, or public devotion. 

WINCHELL'S WATTS. An arrangement of the Psalms and Hymns 
of Watts, with a Supplement. 32mo. Price 67 cents. 

WATTS AND RIPPON. The Psalms and Hymns of Dr. Eippon, with 
Dr. Rippon\s Selections, in one volume, new edition, corrected and 
improved by Rev. C. G. Sommers, New York. 18mo. Price 75 cents. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

i)aCttrtf>Ce £Do?R$ on 3a$t\$m, 

JEWETT CN BAPTISM. The Mode and Subjects of Baptism. By 
Milo P. Jewett, A.M., late Professor in Marietta College and a licensed 
Minister of the Presbyterian Church. Tenth Thousand. Price 25 cents. 

%* There continues to be a steady demand for this popular book. Its cheapness puts it 
within the reach of all. Rev. J. R. Graves, one of the editors of the Tennessee Baptist, in a 
recent number of his paper, says : 

" Who will write the history of one little Jewett on Baptism ? Hundreds in our land have 
been converted to the truth by perusing that book. In the past year, Remington, an able 
Methodist preacher, read that work. It resulted in his conversion —he wrote his * reasons, 
and they converted another preacher, and the pebble thus thrown by Bro. Jewett in the sea 
of mind, produced a wave which produced another, and thus in long succession they will 
travel on, each producing its successor until they break on the shores of eternity. Is the 
object not a commendable one? It is pouring oil upon the unresting wave of religious 
mind, lashed by angry discussions. Such books read in solitude with one's Bible and his 
God, will hush the tempest of his own soul to rest." 

JUDSON ON BAPTISM. A Discourse on Christian Baptism; with 
many quotations from Pedobapist authors. To which are added a letter 
to the church in Plymouth, Ms., and an address on the mode of baptizing. 
By Adoniram Judson. Fifth American edition, revised and enlarged 
by the author. Price 25 cents. 

*** Several large editions were many years since published in this country, and rapidly 
circulated. Although frequent calls have been made for copies, it has been for a long time 
44 out of print." Heretofore it has been published as a pamphlet, and is now for the first 
time published in book form, making a neat 18mo. volume, and having been thoroughly 
revised and enlarged by its venerable author, while lately in this country, it will be sought 
for and read with interest by all. 

It is deemed one of the best works on the subject of Baptism, extant. 

44 It is a clear, calm, and convincing view of the futility of the distinguishing points of 
Pedobaptism, and a rational and scriptural defence of the baptism of persons of suitable 
age and qualifications, and in the manner prescribed in the New Testament." 

Christian Review, Dec. 1847. 

THE BAPTISMAL QUESTION; Containing Messrs. Cooke and 
Towne's " Hints to an Inquirer on the subject of Baptism " — a Review 
of the "Hints," by Rev. Wm. Hague — with a Rejoinder by Messrs. 
Cooke and Towne, and Mr. Hague's Examination of the Rejoinder." 
12mo. Price 67 cents. 

BAPTISM ITS OWN V/ITNESS % Or, Reflections suggested by 
reading " The Baptized Child." By Rev. Wm. Hague. Price 12>£cts. 



THE CHRISTIAN REVIEW. A Quarterly Publication. Edited by 
James D. Kxowees, Baenas Seaes, and S. F. Smith. 

A limited number of complete sets, from 1836 to 1843 inclusive, 
being the first Eight volumes, can be supplied at $10.00 per set, in 
neat Cloth backs. 

A few copies of the work, from vol. 2 to vol. 8 inclusive, will be sup- 
plied in boards, the seven volumes, for $5.00 per set. 

Single volumes (except the Jirst), supplied in numbers, at $1.00 per 
volume. 

\* The Christian Review contains valuable contributions from all the leading men of the 
Baptist denomination, and is an important acquisition to any library. The present opportu- 
nity to secure sets of the early volumes of this work at this greatly reduced price, will, we 
are sure, be embraced by many who desire to possess it, and may never again have so 
favorable an opportunity, as the stock on hand is limited. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATPONS. 

THE FOUR GOSPELS, WITH NOTES. Chiefly Explanatory ; in- 
tended principally for Sabbath School Teachers and Bible Classes, and 
as an aid to Family Instruction. By Henry J. Ripley, Newton Theol. 
Institution. Seventh Edition. Price 31-25. 

*** This work should be in the hands of every student of the Bible, especially every 
Sabbath School and Bible Class teacher. It is prepared with special reference to this class 
of persons, and contains a mass of just the kind of information wanted. 

" The undersigned, having examined Professor Ripley's Notes on the Gospels, can 
recommend them with confidence to all who need such helps in the study of the sacred 
Scriptures. Those passages which all can understand are left • without note or comment,' 
and the principal labor is devoted to the explanation of such parts as need to be explained 
and rescued from the perversions of errorists, both the ignorant and the learned. The 
practical suggestions at the close of each chapter, are not the least valuable portion of the 
work. Most cordially, for the sake of truth and righteousness, do we wish for these Notes 
a wide circulation. 

Baron Stow, R, H. Neale, R. Turnbi'll, 

Daniel Sharp, J. W. Parker, N. Colver. 
"VVm. Hague, R "W. C us hm ax, 

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, WITH NOTES. Chiefly Ex- 
planatory. Designed for Teachers in Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes, 
and as an Aid to Family Instruction. By Prof. Henry J. Ripley. 
Price 75 cents. 

"The external appearance of this book, — the binding and the printed page, — ' it is 
a pleasant thing for the eyes to behold.' On examining the contents, we are favorably 
impressed, first, by the wonderful perspicuity, simplicity, and comprehensiveness of the 
author's style : secondly, by the completeness and systematic arrangement of the work, in 
all its parts, the ' remarks ' on each paragraph being carefully separated from the exposi- 
tion ; thirdly, by the correct theology, solid instruction, and consistent explanations of 
difficult passages. The work cannot fail to be received with favor. These Notes are much 
more full than the Notes on the Gospels, by the same author. A beautiful map accompanies 
them." — Christian Reflector, Boston. 

CRUDEN'S CONDENSED CONCORDANCE. A Complete Con- 
cordance to the Holy Scriptures ; by Alexander Cruden. M.A. A 
New and Condensed Edition, with "an Introduction; by Rev. David 
King, LL.D. Fifth Thousand. Price in Boards, $1.25 ; "Sheep, $1.50. 

*** " This edition is printed from English plates, and is a full and fair copy of all 
that is valuable in Cruden as a Concordance. The principal variation from the larger book 
consists in the exclusion of the Bible Dictionary, which has long been an incumbrance, 
and the accuracy and value of which have been depreciated by works of later date, contain- 
ing recent discoveries, facts, and opinions, unknown to Cruden. The condensation of 
the quotations of Scripture, arranged under their most obvious heads, while it diminishes 
the bulk of the work, greatly facilitates the finding of any required passage. 

"Those who have been acquainted with the various works of this kind now in use, 
■well know that Cruden's Concordance far excels all others. Yet we have in this edition of 
Cruden, the best mode better. That is, the present is better adapted to the purposes of a 
Concordance, by the erasure of superfluous references, the omission of unnecessary expla- 
nations and the contraction of quotations, &c. ; it is better as a manual, and is better 
adapted by its price to the means of many who need and ought to possess such a work, 
than the former larger and expensive edition." — Boston Recorder. 

" The new, condensed, and cheap work prepared from the voluminous and costly one of 
Cruden, opportunely fills a chasm in our Biblical literature. The work has been examined 
critically by several ministers, and others, and pronounced complete and accurate." 

Baptist Record, Phila. 

" This is the very work of which w T e have long felt the need. "We obtained a copy of 
the English edition some months since, and wished some one would publish it ; and we 
are much pleased that its enterprising publishers can now furnish the student of the Bible 
With a work which he so much needs at so cheap a rate." — Advent Herald, Boston. 

" We cannot see bat it is, in all points, as valuable a book of reference, for ministers and 
Bible students, as the larger edition." — Christian Reflector, Boston. 

" The present edition, in being relieved of some things which contributed to render all 
former ones unnecessarily cumbrous, without adding to the substantial value of the work, 
becomes an exceedingly cheap book." — Albany Arglcs. 



GOULD, KENDALL AND LINCOLN'S PUBLICATIONS. 

®5< illorfo of l#t §*m*, W3, 

THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTHS Contributions to Theological Science. 
Price 85 cents. 

"It is a book for thinking men. It opens new trains of thought to the reader puts 

him in a new position to survey the wonders of God's works; and compels Natural Sci- 
ence to bear her decided testimony in support of Divine Troth." — Phila. Ch. Observer. 

MAN PRIMEVAL \ Or, the Constitution and Primitive Condition of the 
Human Being. A Contribution to Theological Science. With a finely 
engraved portrait of the author; 12mo. cloth, price Si. 25. 

*** This is the second volume of a series of works on Theological Science. The first was 
received with much favor — the present is a continuation of the principles which were 
seen holding their way through the successive kingdoms of primeval nature, and are here 
resumed and exhibited in their next higher application to individual man 

" His copious and beautiful illustrations of the successive laws of the Divine Manifesta- 
tion, have yielded us inexpressible delight." — London Eclectic Review, 

THE GREAT COMMISSION; Or, the Christian Church constituted 
and charged to convey the Gospel to the World. A Prize Essay. With 
an Introductory Essay, by W. R. Williams, D.D. Price $1.00 

" Of the several productions of Dr. Harris, — all of them of great value, — that now before 
us is destined, probably, to exert the most powerful influence in forming the religious and 
missionary character of the coming generations. But the vast fund of argument and in- 
struction comprised in these pages will excite the admiration and inspire the gratitude 
of thousands in our own land as well as in Europe. Every clergyman and pious and re- 
flecting layman ought to possess the volume, and make it familiar by repeated perusal." 

Boston Recorder. 

" His plan is original and comprehensive. In filling it up, the author has interwoven facts 
with rich and glowing illustrations, and with trains of thought that are sometimes almost 
resistless in their appeals to the conscience. The work is not more distinguished for its 
arguments and its genius, than for the spirit of deep and fervent piety that pervades it." 

The Day- Spring. 

THE GREAT TEACHER; Or, Characteristics of our Lord's Ministry. 
With an Introductory Essay, by H. Humphrey, D.D. Tenth thousand. 
Price 85 cents. 

" The book itself must have cost much meditation, much. communion on the bosom of 
Jesus, and much prayer. Its style is, like the country which gave it birth, beautiful, varied, 
finished, and everywhere delightful. But the style of this work is its smallest excellence. 
It will be read : it ought to be read. It will find its way to many parlors, and add to the 
comforts of many a happy fireside. The reader will rise from each chapter, not able, per- 
haps, to carry with him many striking remarks or apparent paradoxes, but he will have a 
sweet impression made upon his soul, like that which soft and touching music makes when 
every thing about it is appropriate. The writer pours forth a clear and beautiful light, like 
that of the evening light-house, when it sheds its rays upon the sleeping waters, and 
covers them with a surface of gold. We can have no sympathy with a heart which yields 
not to impressions deiicate and holy, which the perusal of this work will naturally make." 

Jiampshire Gazette. 

MISCELLANIES; Consisting principally of Sermons and Essays. With 
an Introductory Essay and Notes, by J. Belcher, D.D. Price" 75 cents. 

" Some of these essays are among the finest in the language ; and the warmth and energy 
of religious feeling manifested in several of them, will render them peculiarly the treas- 
ure of "the closet and the Christian fireside." — Bangor Gazette. 

MAMMON ; Or, Covetousness, the Sin of the Christian Church. A Prize 
Essay. Price 45 cents. Twentieth thousand. 

\* This masterly work has already engaged the attention of churches and individuals, 
and receives the highest commendations. 

ZEBULON ; Or the Moral Claims of Seamen stated and enforced. Edited 
by Rev. W. M. Rogers and D. M. Lord. Price 25 cents. 

*** A well written and spirit-stirring appeal to Christians in favor of this numerous, use- 
ful, and long neglected class. 

THE ACTIVE CHRISTIAN; Containing the " Witnessing Church," 
" Christian Excellence," and "Means of Usefulness," three popular pro- 
ductions of this talented author Price 31 cents. 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 



SACRED EHETOEIC: 

Or, Composition and Delivery of Sermons. By Henry J. Ripley, 

Prof, in Newton Theological Institution. 

Including Ware's Hints on Extemporaneous Preaching. 

One vol. 12mo. Price 75 Cents. 



THE CHUECH IN EARNEST. 

By John Angell James. 

We rejoice that this work has been republished in this country, and we cannot too 
strongly commend it to the serious perusal of the churches of every name. — Christian 
Alliance. 

Its arguments and appeals are well adapted to rouse to action, and the times call for 
such a book, which we trust will be universally read. — New York Observer. 

Mr. James' writings all have one object, to do execution. He writes under the im- 
pulse — Do something, do it. He studies not to be a profound or learned, but a 
practical writer. He aims to raise the standard of piety, holiness in the heart and 
holiness of life. The influence which this work will exert on the church must be 
highly salutary. — Boston Recorder. 



THE SOCIAL PSALMIST, 

A New Selection of Hymns for Conference Meetings and Family Worship. 
By Baron Stow and S. F. Smith. 

55 s This selection has been in preparation nearly five years. It has been the aim 
of the editors to supply a work of not only elevated poetic and musical merit, but 
of true devotional spirit, embracing, with many new hymns, all those which have 
been long familiar in the Conference meeting, and hallowed by early association of 
home and social prayer. 

The work forms an admirable companion to the Psalmist, and we hope will be 
widely used in connection with it. — New York Recorder. 

They have done well to follow the Psalmist with this new work for the use of 
conference and prayer meetings. Although there was a large variety of such books 
in use, there has been a seriously felt want of one that was free from faults, in taste, 
sentiment or measure. The preparation of this work was undertaken by the right 
hands. We doubt not the work will be popular, and its use co-extensive with the 
Psalmist. — Michigan Christian Herald. 

THE PERSON AND WORK OF CHRIST. 

By Ernest Sartorius, D. D. 
Translated from the German, by Rev. O. S. Stearns, A. M. Cloth. 42 Cents. 
A work of much ability, and presenting the argument in a style that will be new to 
most American readers, it will deservedly attract attention. — New York Observer. 

Whether we consider the importance of the subject discussed, or the perspicuous 
exhibition of truth in the volume before us, the chaste and elegant style used, or the 
devout spirit of the author, we cannot but desire that the work may meet with an 
extensive circulation." — Christian Index. 

THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONS, 

In 1789, 1830, and 1848. In three volumes. By T. W. Redhead. 
Price 75 Cents per Volume. 
The author appears to have prepared himself for his task by a careful examination 
of the best authorities — the writings of the actors in these various scenes ; and he 
has given the results of his examination in a style attractive for simplicity, directness 
and purity. It is the most comprehensive and valuable work on the subject that the 
general reader can find." — American Traveller. 



CONTRIBUTIONS TO THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE. 

BY JOHN HARRIS, D.D. 



THE PRE-ADAMITE EARTH. 

The present is the first of a series of volumes projected by the Author ,• each volume to 
be complete in itself and will appear at intervals. By a special arrangement with the 
Author, ik American Publishers tcill be supplied with the early sheets of the future 
volumes of this series, and will issue them simultaneously with the London Edition. 

NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

It seems to us a very successful specimen of the synthetical mode of reasoning. It 
puts the mind on a new track, and is -well fitted to awaken its energies and expand 
its views. We have never seen the natural sciences, particularly Geology, made to 
give so decided and unimpeachable a testimony to revealed truth. He appears to 
allow it all that it can justly claim, all indeed that its advocates can fairly claim for 
it, while the integrity and truth of the Sciiptures are maintained inviolate. And the 
wonders of God's works, which he has here grouped together, convey a most magnifi- 
cent and even overpowering idea of the Great Creator. Wc wish that we could 
devote a week, uninterruptedly, to its perusal and re-perusal. — Christian Mirror, 
Portland. 

A work of theological science, not to be passed over with a glance, and not to be 
understood on a cursory perusal. It applies certain principles or laws to the succes- 
sive stages of the pre-Adamite earth ; to the historical development of man ; to the 
family; to the nation; to the Son of God ; to the church; to the Bible revelation, 
and to the future pruspeets of humanity. It is a carefully prepared volume, calcula- 
ted to assist an understanding of important truths, and of the great ends of Creation. 
Evening Transcript, Boston. 



MAN PRIMEVAL: 

Or, the Constitution and Primitive Condition of the Human Being, 
With a fine Portrait of the Author. 

NOTICES OF THE PRESS. 

It surpasses in interest its predecessor. It is an able attempt to carry out the 
author's grand conception. His purpose is to unfold, as far as possible, the successive 
steps by which Cod is accomplishing his purpose to manifest His all-sufficiency. * * 
The reader is led along a pathway abounding with rich and valuable thought, going 
on from the author's opening propositions to their complete demonstration. To 
students of mental and moral science, it will be a valuable contribution, and will 
assuredly secure their attention. — Christian Chron., Phil. 

Dr. Harris, though a young man, has placed himself in the very front rank of scien- 
tific writers, and his essays attract the attention of the most erudite scholars of the 
age. — New York Observer. 

It is eminently philosophical, and at the same time glowing and eloquent. It can- 
not fail to have a wide circle of readers, or to repay richly the hours which are given 
to its pages. — New York Recorder. 

The reputation of the author of this volume is coextensive with the English lan- 
guage. The work before us manifests much learning and metaphysical acumen. Its 
gr^at recommendation is, its power to cause the reader to think and reflect. — Boston 
Recorder. 

Reverently recognizing the Bible as the foundation and exponent of truth, he is as 
independent and fearless as he is original and forcible ; and he adds to these qualities 
consummate skill in argument and elegance of diction. — N. Y. Commercial Advertiser. 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 



PROVERBS FOR THE PEOPLE: 

OR, ILLUSTRATIONS OF PRACTICAL GODLINESS 
DRAWN FROM THE BOOK OF WISDOM. 

BY E. L. MAGOON. 



This is a volume of readable sermons, from a sort of steam-engine preacher, who 
hails, we believe, from Cincinnati. He is one of those earnest orthodox men, who, 
unwilling to starve on their creed, go to preaching practical goodness with all their 
might. His words are not, like most, preachers, immensely too large for his meaning. 
Indeed, his meaning fills them, and is a little out at the elbows. Every sentence is 
alive. — C/ironotype. 

This is a new work from the vigorous and terse pen of the author of " Orators of 
the American Revolution." Mr. M. is already well known to the public, both as an 
eloquent preacher and a nervous and forcible writer. One of the best recommenda- 
tions of his works, is the deep earnestness and fervor which always pervade them. 
Whatever other sins may be laid to his charge, he is at least free from the most intol- 
erable and incorrigible one — dulness. He writes always like a thoroughly alive man. 
We may add that Messrs. Gould, Kendall 8{ Lincoln, of this city, are the publishers 
of the work, and that its mechanical execution is like that of every other volume 
that comes from this house — in the best possible taste. — Yankee Blade. 

In the work before us, the principles of Christian morality are handled in a manner 
well calculated to arrest the attention and improve the heart. We would advise the 
reader to purchase the book, anil see how interesting a volume may be written on the 
fundamental virtues and vices of mankind. Like all the publications of Messrs. 
Gould, Kendall & Lincoln, the mechanical execution of the " i'roverbs for the People " 
is faultless. — Sat. Rambler. 

This work consists of eighteen chapters, each of which is devoted to the illustra- 
tion of some good or bad trait in human character. It is an excellent book for young 
people, and especially for young men, amidst the temptations of business and pleasure. 
Albany Express. 

This work turns the Book of Proverbs to excellent account. It illustrates the great 
rules and principles of moral obligation, with admirable effect. If the whole world 
would study it and practise upon it, there would not long be occasion to pray for the 
millenium. — Albany Argus. 

There is not a richer mine of precious thoughts and striking aphorisms, than the 
Book of the Proverbs of Solomon. With an easy and attractive style, Mr. Magoon 
possesses an extensive acquaintance with ancient and modern literature, and inter- 
weaves his practical reflections with varied illustrations and quotations ; rendering 
his work as entertaining as it is instructive. It is a book for the people ; " discussing 
the exalted principles of Christian morality in a manner adapted to the comprehension 
of the great mass of mankind." — Ch. Union. 

Our author is one of the most earnest and wide-awake of our American preachers 
and writers. Each of the eighteen chapters in his book is furnished with a quaint 
title, and filled with vigorous expressions of his own ideas and feelings, interspersed 
with numerous quotations from "ethical writers, ancient sages, and modern poets." 
A work well worthy of its extensive circulation. — Excelsior. 

They are Proverbs for the People, not only as based upon the Proverbs of Holy 
Scripture, but from that peculiarity of the author's style which is seen in his express- 
ing himself so that you may pick a sentence at random from his book, and you will 
find it to contain a complete practical idea, which might serve as a motto to think 
about, or hang a sermon on. He is quaint, sententious, — he has indeed the three 
great qualities, " pith, point and pathos," — and always enforces high and noble senti- 
ments. — N. Y. Recorder. 

It is a popular manual of great practical utility. — Ch. Chronicle, Phila. 

The subjects are so selected as to embrace nearly all the practical duties of life. 
The work, in consequence of this peculiar character, will be found extensively useful. 
The style is neat and compact. — Rochester Democrat. 

The work abounds with original and pithy matter, well adapted to engage the atten- 
tion and to reform the life. We hope these discourses will be extensively read. — 
Morning Star. 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 



REPUBLICAN CHRISTIANITY: 

Or, True Liberty ; as Exhibited in the Life, Precepts, and Early Disciples of 

the Great Redeemer. By E. L. Magoox. Author of " Proverbs 

for the People" " Orators of the American Revolution" #c. 



Dedicated, To all who hate tyranny, revere humanity, believe in progress, and 
follow Christ, this work, is inscribed. 

Contents. — Part I. The Republican Character of Jesus Christ. Chap. I. The 
Infancy of Christ. II. The Youth of Christ. III. The Manhood of Christ. IV. 
Christ as a Preacher. V. The Sacrifice of Christ — Part IT. The Republican Consti- 
tution of the Primitive Church. Chap. I. The Church Without a King. II. Without 
a Pope. III. Without a Bishop. IV. Without a Priest. V. Without an Aristocrat. — 
Part III. The Republican Influence of Christian Doctrine. Chap. I. Christianity the 
Solace of the Obscure. II. The Patron of the Aspiring. III. The Fortifier of the 
Weak. IV. The Deliverer of the Oppressed. V. The Rewarder of the Sacrificed. 

It is adapted to the spirit of the times. It meets and answers the great inquiry of 
the present day. It describes clearly the corruptions of past times, the imperfections 
of the present, and the changes that must be effected in the forms and spirit of relig- 
ion, and through religion upon the State, to secure to us better and brighter prospects 
for the future. The author is not afraid to expose and condemn the errors and cor- 
ruptions, either of the Church or State. — Christian Watchman. 

In this work the author brings the teachings of Scripture to bear upon the subject, of 
political institutions, and deduces the principles of free government from the precepts 
of the Saviour, and the maxims of pure Christianity. We commend the volume to 
the notice of all who are interested in the important study of the connexion between 
good morals and good government. — Boston Courier. 

The great topics of the book, are, the Republican Character of Jesus Christ, the 
Republican Constitution of the Primitive Church, and the Republican Influence of 
Christian Doctrine. That portion of the work which treats of the republican character 
of the Primitive Church, has especially pleased us. Mr. fit. has at his command a 
rich store of learning, from which he skilfully draws abundant evidence for the sup- 
port of the positions he assumes. — Boston Recorder. 

Its object is to illustrate the republican character of Christianity, as set forth in the 
character and teachings of its great founder, and in the constitution of the Primitive 
Church. Jt is a very readable, and, we think, will prove a useful book. The argu- 
ment is clear and well sustained, and the style bold and direct, though, according to 
our judgment, not in the best taste. The tone and spirit of the entire work are that 
of an independent thinker, and of a man whose sympathies are with the many and not 
with the few, with no privileged class, but with the human race. We commend this 
book to all lovers of true liberty and of a pure Christianity. — Providence Journal. 

Mr. Magoon is known as one of the most glowing and impressive orators among the 
Baptist Clergy. He thinks boldly and speaks frankly, and with a variety and fresh- 
ness of illustration that never fail to command attention. The present work is essen- 
tially of the same character as his public discourses. It aims to show that Christian- 
ity is Republican, teaching both by its doctrines and the example of its founder, that 
Freedom is the birth-right of all men, and equality of rights and privileges the divine 
law. It is written for the young 5 the author desires chiefly to foster the noble aspira- 
tions and cheer the honorable hopes which the world neglects or crushes in those 
whose youth is more fortunate in fts internal character than its outward circumstance. 
To many such persons his words will be useful ; they will find themse.ves strengthened 
by his generous spirit, and animated to perseverance by his counsels, more even than 
if he were more precise and dogmatical in the statement of special doctrines. — New 
York Tribune. 

He considers Christianity in all its parts as essentially republican. He has main- 
tained his position with great tact. He abounds in illustrations which are often ex- 
ceedingly beautiful and forcible. All the peculiarities of his style appear in this new 
work, which will generally be regarded as the best that he has produced. It is a 
clear, striking, attractive, presentation of his views and the reasons for them. It will 
excite attention, both from the subject itself, and from the manner in which it is 
handled. — Philadelphia Chronicle. 



RECENTLY PUBLISHED. 



THE EARTH AND MAN: 

Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography, considered in its Relation to the History of 

Mankind. By Arnold Guyot, Prof. Phys. Geo. & Hist., Neuchatel. 

Translated from the French, by Prof. C. C. Felton. — With Illustrations. 



From Prof. Louis Agassiz. 

M I understand that you are about publishing the lectures of Prof. Guyot on Physical 
Geography. Having been his fiienJ from childhood, as a fellow student in college, 
and as a colleague in the same university, I may be permitted to express my high 
sense of the value of his attainments. Mr. Guyot has not only been at the best 
school, that of the Ritter and Humboldt, and become familiar with the present state 
of the science of our earth, but he has himself, in many instances, drawn new con- 
clusions from the facts now ascertained, and presented most of them in a new point 
of view. Several of the most brilliant generalizations developed in his lectures, 
are his ; and if more extensively circulated, will not only render the study of 
geography more attractive, but actually show it in its true light, namely, as the 
science of the relations which exist between nature and man, throughout history j 
of the contrasts observed between the different parts of the globe ; of the laws of 
horizontal and vertical forms of the dry land, in its contact with the sea; of climate, 
&c. It would be highly sorvicable, it seems to me, for the benefit of schools and 
teachers, that you should induce Mr. Guyot to write a series of graduated text-books 
of geography, from the first elements, up to a scientific treatise. It would give new 
life to these studies, in this country, and be the best preparation for sound statistical 
investigations. 1 ' 

From Prof. George Ticknor, Boston. 

Gentlemen : I was very glad, a few days ago, to learn, incidentally, that you in- 
tend to publish Guyot's Lectures on Physical Geography. I attended as many of them 
as I could with convenience, besides which, I read them as they appealed in the Daily 
Traveller ; and I l.ave no doubt you will, by making them easily accessible, vender a 
service at once to the cause of science and of popular education. Their familiar and 
simple manner, will, I hope, cause them to be used in our schools, where I think their 
modest learning and religious philosophy will make them an excellent foundation for 
the study of all geography, as it is now taught, and especially of that higher geography 
which connects itself with the destinies of the whole human race. 
Your obedient servant, 

GEO. TICKNOR. 

The work is also highly commended by Prof. B.Pierce, Harvard University, Charles 
Sumner, Esq., George S. Hillard, Esq., Rev. E. N. Kirk, and many others. 



WAYLAND'S UNIVERSITY SERMONS. 

Sermons delivered in Brown University. 
By FRANcrs Wayland. 

Contents. — Theoretical Atheism. Practical Atheism. The Moral Character of 
Man, Love to God. The Fall of Man. Justification by Works Impossible. Pre- 
paration for the Advent of the Messiah. The Work of the Messiah. Justification 
by Faith. A Day in the Life of Jesus of Nazareth. The Fall of Peter. The 
Church of Christ. The Unity of the Church. The Duty of Obedience to the Civil 
Magistrates. The recent Revolutions in Europe. 

" Few sermons contain so much carefully-arranged thought as these by Dr. Way- 
land. The thorough logician is apparent throughout the volume, and there is a clas- 
sic purity in the~ diction unsurpassed by any writer, and equalled by very few. 
Knowing" the author's rigid adherence to fixed principles, as the only safe guide to 
right conclusions, the intelligent Christian will turn with deep interest to the two 
last sermons." — New York Commercial Advertiser. 

- M They are the careful productions of a matured and powerful intellect, and were 
addressed to a thinking and well-informed audience, and are especially adapted for the 
educated and thoughtful man." — Christian Alliance. 



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